Chameleon
by HPsea
Summary: Trying to hide a magical secret in a room full of witches and wizards actually isn't as hard as it seems. Grace Waterrose, a muggleborn, is keeping a secret from nearly the entirety of Hogwarts: her eyes change colors according to what she feels. And she was doing a good job, until Hugo Weasley comes along and her eyes go out of control, changing colors like rapid.
1. Prologue

I guess this whole thing started when I was born. My parents didn't really notice anything wrong until about a week after I was born when my normally blue eyes switched to a warm brown color to symbolize my hunger (which I later learned).

My parents, being muggles, had a major freak out session and tried to take me to a doctor to have me tested. Unfortunately for them, no doctors took them seriously- I mean, who would? "My baby's eyes change colors according to how she feels! Help me!" Would you believe them either?

Anyway, their complaints got the attention of the Wizarding World and Minerva McGonagall herself came and explained things to them. She also told them that my older sister, Lillian, was also a witch. Naturally, my parents had a major freak out and tried to give us to McGonagall, but they eventually got over themselves (not really) and that's pretty much how this whole thing started. McGonagall informed them that she would come back once I was five and start giving me lessons on how to keep my eyes from switching colors.

The Waterrose's suddenly had a huge secret thrust upon them and two 'devil' children to care for. You can imagine why my upbringing wasn't the best experience. My parents had three more kids after that, trying to produce some normal children. They had Dustin, Lillian's twin brother, but apparently he was demon spawn too since he was in the womb with the monster, Lillian.

When my Hogwarts letter came, it was such a relief. I mean, I knew it was coming but I couldn't wait to get away from my abusive parents. (Oh, did I not mention that part?) My sister had already been there for three years and she loved it. McGonagall came to take us school shopping, as she did every year even though she was retired.

I remember skipping down the street of Diagon Ally, holding Lillian's hand as I took everything in. It took all of my power to keep my eyes from switching to a bright yellow, showing my excitement and curiosity. I still remembered McGonagall warning me that mine was an unheard of talent, especially for a muggleborn, and if someone were to figure it out it would have catastrophic results.

We went to Ollivander's, where an ancient man gave me a pretty white wand, Flourish and Blotts, where we got a million new books for both Lillian and I, and then we met up with Lillian's best friends, Katrina "Kat" MacMillan for ice cream.

When the day finally came that we were to go to Hogwarts, I barely dodged a beer bottle that was thrown at me and Lillian and I sat outside in silence, waiting anxiously for McGonagall to save us from this hell. Lillian's face was decorated with bruises and my wrist was broken, my face cut, and my arms were sporting bruises. "What happened to you dears?" a lady with flaming red hair asked, stopping in front of our house.

"I fell down the stairs," I lied, clutching my trunk.

"I walked into my doorway," Lillian said in a monotone voice.

"Ah," the woman said, raising an eyebrow. "Well, my name in Ginny Potter. Minerva sent me here to collect you. She's gotten sick and can't take you to Hogwarts this year, but she wanted me to assure you that she'll visit on Christmas."

Lillian and I nodded as Ginny levitated our trunks into a car that I hadn't noticed before. We piled into the already full car. My head dizzied with names and I closed my eyes to keep from revealing my secret. When we finally got to the train station and the kids piled on the train, I found an empty compartment and just stared out the window, relieved that, maybe, I could finally find a home somewhere.

The sorting wasn't that bad. The only bad thing was that I had to go last. But, ever since getting to Hogwarts, it had been easier for me to control my emotions and keep my eyes the light blue calm. The hat was placed on my head by, who else, Ginny Potter taking over McGonagall's job.

I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard the hat speak in my head. Ah. You have a secret that you're guarding and immense power, yet you are not kind enough to be a Hufflepuff and not clever enough to be a Ravenclaw. I know... "Slytherin!" I walked over to the Slytherin table and I felt my eyes quickly flash green with happiness. I met eyes with a cute redhead from across the table looking at me with a curious look in his eyes. Oh, bollocks. I think he saw my eyes. But he didn't look my way the rest of the night, so I hoped that I was safe for the moment.

My roommates were nice enough, but I took a special liking to Genie Conners, a cute girl with short brown hair and matching eyes. She talked a mile a minute and quickly became my best friend.

She's also the reason that my life went to hell.

You see, it was the week before school was to end and Genie and I were sitting near a tree close to the Black Lake. "Wanna know a secret?" Genie asked, blowing a piece of hair out of her face. I nodded eagerly. "My daddy isn't my real daddy. Mommy cheated on him and got pregnant by someone else. So I'm not a Pureblood. I'm actually a halfblood."

"Oh. Want me to tell you a secret? My eyes change colors according to how I feel. Here, I'll show you." I relaxed and my eyes turned a green color.

Genie shrieked and I jerked back in surprise. "My mommy warned me about your kind! You monster!" I tried to reach out a hand to touch her but she shuffled back. "Genie, wait!" I tried to concentrate, but tears blurred my vision. Was there something wrong with me?

McGonagall fixed the issue by obliviating her and everyone that she had told, but I had broken. I thought that I had found a place that I could call home, where I wasn't scared to be a witch. But I was still a freak.

I detached myself from everyone and everything, and it became easy for me to control my eyes.

Until Hugo Weasley came along and broke down my barriers.

* * *

I didn't officially meet Hugo until my Second Year at Hogwarts, and it wasn't even a real introduction.

We were both trying out for Quidditch, a sport that I had quickly taking a liking to, for the Beater position. He basically shot me glares the entire time and, unfortunately, Lydia Zabini, the Quidditch captain at the time, decided to pair us together.

I'm just gonna say this outright, we were a terrible pair. My eyes flashed red with annoyance every few moments and I had to pray that everyone thought that it was just a trick of the light. But while we worked terribly together, we were amazing individually, granting both of us a spot on the Slytherin Quidditch team with me being the only girl besides for Lydia.

Lydia gave us the standard "welcome to the team" speech and I was just about to run out when Lydia barked, "Weasley, Waterrose. Work out whatever you've got goin' on. I'm not gonna deal with your crap."

Hugo's eyes were blazing and I tried to keep mine calm, knowing that if they swapped colors now, it couldn't be mistaken for a trick of the light. I tugged on my robes, making sure that all of my scars were covered, before extending a hand to him. "Hi, I'm Grace Waterrose."

He scoffed and began the walk towards the castle. Rude. I chased after him. "Okay, so you obviously don't like me, but the least you could do is give me a proper introduction!"

He continued to walk at a hurried pace, but responded, "What, like this? I'm Hugo Weasley, Third Year, Slytherin, obviously."

"Yeah-"

"And you're Grace Waterrose, Second Year, the girl who sits with her friends but detaches herself from them, always twiddling around with that little black book of yours and a muggle pencil. Am I right?"

"What are you, a stalker?" I demanded, closing my eyes to get them to return to their calm blue color.

"No, just observant," he shot back, opening the door to the Great Hall and, with a mocking sweep of the arm, saying, "After you, your mysteriousness."

"Look, I know that you hate me, but can't we try to get along? I mean, we're going to have to work together, so we might as well try!"

He turned toward me and said, in a low voice, "You're just a weak little girl who can never be a real Beater! I mean, you're a girl, for Merlin's sake!"

"Oh, screw you, Weasley," I spat out, becoming aware that nearly the entire room was watching our exchange. "I can beat circles around you, and you know it!"

"Don't you 'Weasley' me, Waterrose!" And at that I just lost it. I felt my eyes turn a bright red in anger and, with a hand covering my face, I marched out of the Great Hall and found a nice broom cupboard to try and get my eyes back to normal.

"Grace!" I heard a voice call out. I groaned quietly as I felt my eyes turn silver with anxiety. "Oh, screw this. 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.'" The door to my broom cupboard was flung open and the person stepped into the closet, closing the door behind them while stuffing a piece of parchment in their back pocket.

"I was looking all over for you," Hugo said, exasperated.

"Maybe I didn't want to be found."

"Obviously. Anyway, I wanted to talk about how your eyes change colors," he continued bluntly.

I choked on air, feeling my eyes switch colors in a flurry of emotions. "How- what-"

"No need to lose your cool, Waterrose. I know I'm attractive and all, but I thought that you had more self respect than that." He grinned at me and, unlike I expected, it didn't come out cocky. He was just smiling at me, and while I hate to admit it, I may have smiled back. "Sooooo. Your eyes?"

"They change colors," I said.

"I know that, obviously. You did a very good job at hiding it, though. I don't think anyone else notices."

"And we're going to keep it that way," I shot back icily.

He held up his hands in mock surrender. "No need to get defensive, I won't tell anyone. Like I said, the only reason I figured it out is because I'm observant. But why do they switch colors?"

"I don't have to tell you anything," I said, crossing my arms.

"No, you don't," he agreed. "I just figured that it would be nice to have someone to talk to."

"You don't even like me, why do you care?"

"I don't know, Grace."

"Pick one."

"What?" He looked confused.

"Call me 'Grace' or 'Waterrose'. Quit switching them up."

He smirked at me. "Fine, Waterrose."

"Fine, Weasley," I retorted.

"Fine. But for the sake of the team, let's try to get along. You're really not half-bad. I'm just annoyed because it took me three years to get on the team and you come in and sweep them away."

"Awe, is little Hugo Weasley jealous?" I teased.

"Maybe," he admitted. "I gotta go, but if you ever wanna talk, you know where to find me."

"In a random broom cupboard?"

He laughed, and I felt my eyes turn pink with embarrassment. But in a good way. "Nah. I'll see you around."

"Emotions," I told him as he turned to go. "They change according to my emotions."

"Good to know." And he left.

Hugo and I worked as a team from then on. We weren't friends- far from it- and we fought frequently, but he knew my deepest secret and kept it, so we did have something. I never did end up having a heart-to-heart with Hugo that year- that didn't happen until my Fourth Year, his Fifth. And that, my friends, is where our story really begins.


	2. Summer Surprises

Summer had been especially bad that year. Dad's drinking problem had gone to a whole new level and Mum was having an affair with a random flame, meaning that the abuse had also gone to a whole new level. Both parents had begun hitting their other kids as well, until one day, it got so bad that Lillian and I had to step in.

Dustin, Lillian's twin, had moved out of the house into his boyfriend's house when he had turned sixteen. Lillian hadn't moved out yet, mostly because she knew that we still needed help around the house. She was basically holding this house up on her own two broken arms.

Anyway, it was a particularly bad Wednesday, Dad was piss drunk and Mum was fighting with him about something, so when Caleb, my five year old brother, got in the way, mum didn't hesitate to slap him with all of her power. He was screaming in pain, and I quickly grabbed him. I was already peppered with bruises and covered in scratches, but I grabbed him and my mom grabbed my arm, her nails digging into my skin, drawing blood. "Out," she hissed. "Get out of my house and don't you ever come back."

"What-?" Sally, the thirteen year old, began, coming down the stairs.

I pushed Caleb into her arms. "You need to go to Jesse's house. Take Caleb, grab Tammi and go." Jesse Creevey was our next door neighbor. His family was one of wizards, but he was a squib and Sally's best friend. They had offered to take us in and Sally spent most nights at their home.

"Wait-" Sally tried to interrupt, but I cut her off: "Leave. They want us out. Take your emergency bags."

She ran off, taking the kids with her, just as Lillian hurried down the stairs. "What is going on here?!" Her eyes took in the wreckage of the room and mum and dad fighting. "Stop it!" Her face was flushed and I could sense magic coming off of her in waves.

"Lillian," I warned. But it was too late. She exploded and suddenly everything was frozen, as if she had cast the immobulus charm. "Oh _no_." She looked around, panicked, before running straight into the arms of McGonagall.

"What are you doing here?" I asked her, tugging on a lock of hair, purple from the time Sally and I decided to play with hair dye, watching her as she took in the scene in front of her, her lips pursed.

"Underage magic was detected in the household. I got the alert and decided to come and see what set it off." She looked around the room again and sighed. "I'll let you off with a warning, but we'll need to find the both of you a place where you can stay for the remainder of the summer holidays. And where are your siblings?"

"Grace sent them with the Creevey's. They'll let them stay there. And I can stay with Kat," Lillian said.

"Do you have anyone specific that you would like to stay with, Grace?" I thought of the look on Genie's face when I showed her my eyes and shook my head. I didn't want to have to deal with pretending to be best friends with her for the rest of the summer. I already had to do that for the rest of the year.

McGonagall peered at me over her spectacles. "I'm sure I can get one of the Wotter families to host you. Do you have a fireplace?"

I nodded and started to point in its direction when I remembered the spectacle we left behind. Lillian and I walked her to our fireplace. "Are you going to unfreeze our parents?"

"When the both of you are at your safe houses, yes. But until Lillian and yourself get packed and leave, they shall remain in their frozen positions where they are not hurting anybody." And with that, she stuck her head into the fireplace, dismissing us from the room.

I slowly walked up the stairs into the attic room that I shared with Lillian and Dustin- you know. The devil children. Lillian and I both grabbed our emergency bags, an idea that Lillian had implemented in case things got so bad at home, that we just needed to rush out of the house with basic necessities.

When we got back downstairs, Professor McGonagall's head was out of the fireplace, her arms crossed and lips pursed. "That was rather quick. You didn't use magic, did you?"

Lillian smiled slightly and said, "No. We always have a bag packed... Just in case."

McGonagall's smile became a bit more forced and she nodded toward the fireplace. "Katrina will happily host you, Lillian, and I've arranged for the Weasley's to host you, Grace."

"Which Weasley's?" I questioned.

"Hermione and Ron Weasley." I felt my face heat up. I would have to spend a month and a half sharing a house with Hugo Weasley? The only person outside of my family who knew about my crazy eyes. The person who I hadn't really ever spoken too.

"Lillian first." Lillian threw in a handful of Floo powder, let her eyes roam over the mess, and shouted Katrina's address into the fire. McGonagall turned to me. "Will you be alright? I know that it's hard to control your eyes at times."

"I'll be fine," I assured. "Hugo and I play Quidditch together, so we know each other." I felt my eyes shift to the color teal, which happened when I was lying. She narrowed her eyes, but handed me the powder and I stepped into the fire.

I stumbled out of the fireplace, gripping the handle of my suitcase. A lady with bushy brown hair came rushing towards me, helping me up. I winced as she grabbed my arm, feeling her press on my bruises that never seemed to heal. She immediately let go of my arm, noticing my wince. "You must be Grace. Please, call me Hermione. Is that all you've brought with you?" I nodded. "Oh. Well, I have some of Rose's old clothes you can borrow. I've set up the Rose's room for you, she moved after she graduated. It's next to Hugo's. You are both on the Quidditch team, are you not?"

I nodded silently as she led me through the pristine house into an equally pristine room. It was set up in the Ravenclaw colors and two of the walls were covered with book shelves. The other wall was wallpapered with photos.

Hermione wrung her hands together and said, "I noticed you wince earlier. Would you like me to heal your arms for you?"

I protectively drew my arms around my waist and shook my head. "No, thank you. I'm okay." Her gaze pierced me, and just when I thought that she would force me to reveal my arms, someone walked into the room, calling, "Mom, have you seen my gray shirt with the snake on it?"

Hermione ripped her eyes from me and turned them towards a shirtless red-head. "Hugo!" she admonished. "We have a guest here, do you not have the decency to at least put on some clothes?"

"Guest?" Hugo turned to look at me and he grinned. "Waterrose! I forgot that you were coming today! Does that mean she's coming with us to the Burrow for our summer party?"

"Well, I suppose she'll have to. Is that okay with you, Grace?"

"Um, sure." Really, what else was I going to say. I already felt uncomfortable staying at their home, I would rather not make them hate me while I'm at it.

"Wonderful!" Hermione exclaimed, clapping her hands together. "We're going to let you get settled in. Please, use anything in her room. It's yours now. And before you ask again, I just put your shirt in the wash, so pick a different one to wear. And stop showing off for Grace!"

Hugo winked at me and my eyes flashed pink with embarrassment. "Awe, she doesn't mind, Mum." Hermione took Hugo by the ear and dragged him out of the room.

"Dinner is served at seven o'clock. It's just Ron, Hugo, and I, but we hope that you'll join us." And with that, she shut the door.

I pulled out my suitcase and began organizing my stuff in the room. If I was going to be there for the next two months, then I might as well get settled in. I put my pajamas and my single outfit that I brought into the empty bottom drawer of the closet, which actually had a lot of clothes already in it, but none that looked like they would fit a seventeen year old girl.

I put all of my toiletries in the connecting bathroom before studying the room. And stuck a picture of my family up on the nightstand. All of the pictures were of the same five people except for a few that were of her entire extended family. I recognized Rose immediately since, hello, we went to school together for nearly four years, and she was really popular, so everyone knew about her. I envied Rose. She had four best friends who knew her better than anyone else, whereas I couldn't even trust my friends, and the only person that I _did_ trust wasn't even one of my friends. I sighed and gingerly sat on the bed.

I had started to relax a bit more when an owl swooped into my room. "Merlin?" I murmured. He hooted and dropped the letter on my lap. I filled the sink with water and grabbed him some owl treats before opening the letter.

 _Grace-_

 _Minnie just owled me about Mum and Dad. Apparently, one of the neighbors heard us shouting and called the muggle police, so now Mum and Dad are being tried for child abuse. Only Dustin and I have to go to court since we're the oldest, but I thought that I should let you know about it anyway._

 _I know that you're probably getting mad at me right about now, but control your eyes, my darling sister. I'm serious, don't worry about it. I checked in with the Creevey's. They're going to let Caleb, Sally, and Tammi stay there until they're old enough to live on their own. Kat has her own flat, so I'll be living with her._

 _Don't feel like you have to revert into your tough persona, just be yourself! You're probably going to be staying with the Weasley's until your old enough to decide where you want to live yourself. And, no, they are not adopting you, and since I know you have a tiny crush on Hugo (don't you dare try and deny it) you could still get married without it being weird._

 _Anyway, since none of us are going to be able to see each other on a day to day basis, I thought that we should come up with a monthly date, like we did when Dusty moved out. When works for you?_

 _Don't be a stranger, dahlin'!_

 _Lillian_

My eyes were wet and dark blue with sadness. My family wasn't with me, not that I needed them, but my younger siblings were probably confused. And my parents were probably going to end up in jail, and people were going to expect me to visit them. And Lillian was happy, not that that was a bad thing, but I was jealous that she had another sister already. I started sobbing until I fell asleep.

"Waterrose. Grace. Get up!" I jolted awake to see Hugo leaning over me. "Whoa, your eyes. Are you okay?"

"Why are you here, Weasley?" I asked tiredly, rubbing my eyes to get them back to normal.

"It's fifteen minutes to dinner, so Mum said that I should come and get you. Is that a picture of your family?"

My eyes turned back to dark blue and started to water. "Um, yeah," I said, rubbing my eyes. "That's Lillian and Dustin, they're the twins. Sally is over there, holding Caleb. And me and Tammi are there."

"For two people who hated each other, your parents sure did have a lot of kids." I shot him a glare but it quickly dissipated and I started crying again. Hugo's arm came around me and I buried my face in his shirt. Once my tears were dried out, he asked, "What's wrong?"

"I'm just... tired. I'm tired of being lonely, I'm tired of missing my parents, even though they hate me more than anything, I'm tired of hiding who I am, I'm mad that you're the only one who knows about my eyes, and we're not even friends, and I'm mad that my parents for putting me in this situation where my entire family is split up! And I'm mad that I have to stay with your family, where I know that I don't really belong."

"Wow." He was silent for a minute, processing. "So, your eyes turning dark blue means that you're sad?"

I snorted. "That's all you have to ask?"

He shrugged. "I guess. And by the way, we can be friends if you want." I shot him a look. "What? You can come hang out with my peeps. They're going to be at the Burrow for the summer party. It's a weekend thing, so we all hang out and have this sleepover with cool food. And all of our friends are invited. It should be fun."

I nodded. Hugo looked at me for another moment before abruptly getting up. "Well, we've been about ten minutes, so we better get down there. Mum hates when we're late to dinner, and Dad hates delaying eating, so it's a lose-lose situation if we're late. Let's go," he concluded, finally getting the point of his speech.

"Okay." I followed him through the maze of the house to the kitchen, where Hermione was setting out a truly amazing feast. Usually I ate the bare minimum since we didn't have a lot of money and no one in our family really cooked for us. Scratch that, no one in our family knew how to cook, and Mum and Dad certainly weren't going to help us in that department.

"Grace, darling!" Hermione greeted. "I didn't know what you liked, so I tried to make something from all different types of cuisines. My mother-in-law taught me all that I know, so it should be good, but if you want something else, let me know."

"Really anything is fine. I'm just grateful to have a meal in front of me." She shot me a sympathetic look, which made me clench my fist in aggravation. I hated people feeling sorry for me.

"'Mione? Something smells delicious in here! What-" An older man who I recognized as the famous Ron Weasley walked into the room, planting a kiss on Hermione's cheek. "Hi." He paused in front of me and stuck out a hand, looking at me sternly. "I'm Mr. Weasley. Are you Tabitha?"

"No," I asked, confused. "My name is Grace Waterrose. Um-"

"She's the girl McGonagall told us about, remember?" Hermione placed a hand on his arm. "She's going to be staying with us, well, indefinitely."

"Oh, right!" He dropped his hand and gave me a clumsy hug. "My name is Ron. Ignore the Mr. Weasley stuff. Reminds me of my father. And my older brother. Anyway, what's to eat?"

"Ron," Hermione chided, however not able to keep in her laugh. Hugo plopped down in the seat across from his father and Hermione sat next to him, leaving me to take the seat next to Hugo.

Ron and Hugo immediately dug into the meal, stuffing their mouths as they took the servings. My eyes turned dark green in disgust, but I wrinkled my nose to try and show my feelings in a normal way. My eyes met Hermione's and she rolled her eyes and mouthed, _Boys_. I shot her a small smile before taking some mashed potatoes and caesar salad (in a much neater manner than the boys, might I add).

"So, Grace, was it?" Ron asked, swallowing his food. "You play Quidditch? What position?"

"Um, I'm a beater. With Hugo."

"A girl beater?" His eyebrows shot into his hair.

"That's what I said! But then Lily gave me a talking to and Waterrose and I actually work pretty well together."

"Right, I forgot that Lily's a beater. Sometimes I forget that she's a girl though, so I don't have the best track record."

"Believe me, the boys don't forget that she's a girl."

"Who do I need to beat up?"

"Pretty much any boy with eyes. Especially Lorcan. He's been especially flirty with her lately, but he's a man-whore, and Lily wants someone who's marriage material."

"So, do you think Tabitha is marriage material?" Hermione added slyly.

Hugo speared a piece of lettuce before answering, "I dunno. She's hot though. And she likes me. And she's really nice."

I snorted and they all looked at me. "Sorry, I'm just not used to your family dynamic."

"Uh huh," Ron smirked.

Hugo rolled his eyes. "She thinks it's stupid that I'm dating Tabby if the only reason is because she's hot. But I named two other reasons too! She's nice, and she likes me."

"You don't even like her," I exclaimed. "And she's not even real nice, she's super fake nice. And even if she was real nice, if you don't like someone, you shouldn't date them. It's common knowledge!"

"You're just jealous," Hugo teased.

"Not really, no. I wouldn't want to date you if you were the last man on earth. I don't feel like dating someone who strings people along until someone 'hotter' comes along."

"Yeah, well I wouldn't want to date you either. You have no emotions!"

"I do to have emotions!" I gestured furiously to my eyes.

"Yeah, but your emotional range is the size of a teaspoon." His parents burst into laughter, startling us both. I think that we both forgot that there were other people in the room.

"Sorry," Hermione giggled, clutching Ron's hand. "Five galleons?"

"Deal," Ron responded, a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

"What just happened?" I asked.

Hugo shrugged. "You think I know? Rose and I have just learned to ignore all the things that our parents do. They have their own secret language. It's useless to try and decode it."

And with that, everyone went back to eating their dinner, as though nothing weird had just happened. Merlin, what sort of family had I moved in with?

I had spent the rest of my summer, up until the party at the Burrow, that is, sketching (which is what I did in my 'mysterious' notebook) and hanging out (i.e. fighting) with Hugo. Surprisingly, Hugo and I actually made pretty good friends. We bantered a bit, sure, but we had fun together. And I didn't have to worry about controlling my eyes with him.

Where I did have to worry about controlling my eyes was at the annual Weasley summer bash, which had my eyes turning silver in anxiety. I smoothed down the white striped shirt I was wearing and pulled on skinny jeans over my swimsuit. I had taken to wearing Rose's old clothes, mostly because Hugo had stolen mine and covered them in chicken feathers and glue as part of a stupid, unintelligent prank.

Hugo burst into my room, a surprisingly regular occurrence, and skidded to a stop in front of me. "Ready to go?"

"You're really lucky that I wasn't naked," I told him, grabbing my overnight bag and following him out of the room.

"Unlucky," Hugo muttered under his breath. I slapped his arm and he pouted, trying to look innocent.

"You have a girlfriend," I reminded him.

He rolled his eyes. "That reminds me, she's coming to the Burrow today, so watch out. I haven't told her that you've moved in with us, and she hates all of my friends that are girls. She's kind of a bitch that way." He grabbed my bag and put it in the back of the car we were driving to the Burrow. I wasn't exactly sure why we weren't Apparating or Flooing there, but apparently the Burrow was near their house and Ron liked to drive.

Ron bounded out of the house calling, "'Mione, where're the car keys?"

Hermione walked out with a small suitcase in her hand and the keys in the other. "Honestly, Ronald." She threw him the car keys, which he caught with his wand.

As it turned out, Ron did not know how to drive. At least, he didn't know how to drive well. After the nineteenth time we skidded into a turn, making me crash into Hugo, we arrived at the Burrow. "Whoa," I breathed. The house was as magical as I expected, but it was what surrounded the house that made me gasp. Green lawns were littered with a million people, many of them containing red hair, and two tents resting in the background, which I figured were for the kids to sleep in. There was a bright blue lake glistening in the background, so I figured that that was where we would be swimming.

Hugo grabbed my hand, whispering, "Your eyes keep flashing. Might want to try and tone it down."

"Sorry," I murmured.

Hugo tugged at my hand and I followed him as he led me across the grass. "C'mon. I better introduce you to everyone."

"You don't need to sound so unenthusiastic."

He grinned at me. "This is Lucy," he said, tapping a red-headed cousin of his who was chugging alcohol straight from the bottle. "And these are her friends, Cole and Callie. Guys, this is Grace."

"I thought you had a girlfriend, Hugo," Lucy said, her words surprisingly steady for someone who had been drinking a copious amount of alcohol.

"I do. She's a friend. She's staying with our family for a while."

"Cool." Callie shook my hand, before grabbing a bottle of beer from the nearby bucket. "Well, we gotta go before Percy catches us with booze. He thinks that Lucy drinks too much." Lucy rolled her eyes and took another swig. "Have fun meeting the rest of Hugh's family."

Another redhead (seriously, there were a million in his family) leapt toward Hugo and threw her arms around him. "Hugo!"

"Rose!" Hugo let go of my hand and wrapped his arms around his older, shorter, sister.

"How have you been? Oh, Merlin, I'm so sorry I didn't introduce myself sooner. My name is Rose- hey, is that my shirt- you must be Grace." I was about to shake her hand when she turned away and shouted, "Scorpius!"

"Rosie, I was looking everywhere for you. Hold on- guys, I found her!" Four other people came rushing towards us at his call. "Oh, hi, I'm Scorpius Malfoy, Rose's boyfriend."

"Grace." I stared in shock.

"Cool eyes," he commented. "I've never seen a shade of green like that."

"Lime green?" I asked, turning to Hugo. He nodded with a sympathetic expression on his face. I turned back toward Scorpius, this time with my eyes under control. "They're blue, but they do look green in certain lights."

"Ah." He didn't look convinced.

"Hey, I recognize you," one of the girls said suddenly. She was leaning into Albus Potter, someone I recognized because he used to be one of the most popular boys at school. "You and Hugo had a huge rivalry going in school when we were there. I don't know if you remember me. I'm Sophia."

"Oh." I remembered her. She was kidnapped in her Fifth Year and never came back to school once she was rescued. I knew that she was acting as wandmaker, but I didn't want to bring any of that up in case of PTSD, or something.

She smiled. "It's okay, that's what everyone thinks about when they see me too, but once you see me often enough, you get over it."

"Yeah, and you start to look at the bright side of her kidnapping. Like me and Leo getting together," the blonde girl said.

"Yeah, and I got to learn about the whole world of magic," Leo said. The blonde elbowed him in the stomach. "And getting together with Ava, of course."

"Wait, so you're a muggle?" I asked.

"Yep," he responded, popping the p.

"C'mon. We're going to have a picnic. Do you want to join us? Hugo, Grace?"

"Nah," Hugo said, gripping my hand again. "I wanna introduce Grace to the rest of the family."

Rose's eyes drifted to our linked hands, which I didn't feel embarrassed about. It seemed natural to be holding his hand. "Sure. I saw Tabitha a few minutes ago in the kitchen talking with Roxie and Viviana, so, just be careful with your friendship."

Hugo looked down in confusion, dropping my hand. "Oh, right. So, just. Follow me, Waterose."

"Back to last names, are we, Weasley?" I teased, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, shut up." Within the next hour, Hugo introduced me to more people than I care to remember. I met Molly, a bookish girl who I briefly remembered from my classes with the Ravenclaws, and her friend Jordan, who was significantly louder than Molly. James, Albus and Lily's older brother, and his girlfriend, Dylan. We met up with Lily and her friends, Zinnia and Dominique. Louis and Lysander were also there, since they were dating Zinnie and Dom, respectively.

We were talking to Fred and his girlfriend, Jessica, when an annoying voice interrupted our conversation. "Hugo!" The owner of the voice flew between me and Hugo and started making out with him.

"Mmph." Hugo tried to push her away as Janine and Remus, Teddy and Victorie's kids, ran around them squealing in that way little kids do when people kiss. Or eat each other's faces off. "Tabitha, not here."

"Sorry," Tabby said, shooting me a fake smile. "And who is this?"

"I'm Grace," I said, offering her an equally fake smile.

"And why are you here?"

"Because I was invited," I said with a 'duh' expression.

"Well, duh," she said, rolling her eyes. "But why were you invited? And why were you groping my boyfriend?"

I felt my face heat up and knew that my eyes would soon follow, so I hastily excused myself. "Wait up, Grace!"

I waved Hugo off and grabbed my sketchbook, sitting underneath a tree that overlooked the entire yard. I trained my eyes on Hugo, who seemed to be arguing with Tabitha about something. That is until she pushed him into the lake. She stripped off her clothes, revealing her skimpy swimsuit that made Hugo's eyes bulge. At least, I'm assuming it did. All of the other kids started to jump into the lake, one by one. Rose was on Scorpius's back, and Sophia and Albus were having a splash war.

I started rifting through my sketchbook. The most recent ones were mostly of Hugo, but I had drawn just about anything that I had seen. I also drew a lot about domestic violence in the past, but I figured that it was best to try and get rid of the past.

I opened my notebook to a new page and started drawing Hugo and Tabitha, making Tabitha cling onto Hugo while he was waving to someone in the distance. Because that was what was actually happening. I looked up to see him gesturing at me to join them in the lake. I shook my head, gesturing to my eyes. He gave me a look of disbelief. He started walking out of the lake, pushing Tabitha off of him, and started walking towards me.

"Hey." I snapped closed my notebook as Hugo plopped down beside me. He slung an arm around me and I squirmed, trying to push him off. "No!" I squealed. "You're all wet!"

He smirked and I started scooting backwards. "No, Hugo, please no." He fell on top of me, soaking me. "Stop," I laughed. He started tickling me, which made me laugh even harder.

He stopped tickling me, both of us breathing hard from our tickle-battle. "See!" A voice screeched. "I knew you were trying to steal my boyfriend! Hughie, let's go." I wrinkled my nose at her distasteful nickname for him.

"For all of the good things that are magical, we're just FRIENDS, Tabby! I'm not a cheater." He was glaring at her and looked extremely menacing, and not in a hot way.

"It's _her_ I don't trust, not you."

"Well, if you trust me, then you trust her. Grace is one of my best friends. You don't have a problem with Lorcan or Tommie, or even Amanda! Why's Grace any difference?"

"Because! Lorcan and Tommie are boys, and Amanda's not that pretty. And you and Grace had been enemies since forever, what changed?"

"Grace is living with us," Hugo said simply. "And if you have a problem with that, then we're done."

"Fine," Tabitha hissed, her eyes turning to slits. "You're still my boyfriend. But you-" She stuck one of her overly manicured fingers in my face. "You better watch out. I can dig up all kind of crap on you that you don't want anyone to know. I am a powerful enemy."

"And I don't take well to threats. So you also made a powerful enemy." I smiled cheerfully. "This is going to be a great year, don't you think?"


	3. Going Home

I wasn't really sure where to go. Usually, Genie and the girls would pounce on me and drag me into their compartment, but this year, Hugo had grabbed onto my elbow and was hurrying us towards his compartment, where I was apparently to sit for the duration of the train ride.

"Grace, keep up," Hugo called. I was feeling exasperated, and since I knew nobody could see me, I let my eyes turn orange in annoyance. He laughed at me, and I stuck out my tongue. "I wanna get there before Grayson's group gets there. They always try and steal our spot on the train, but they've never succeeded and they aren't going to this year!"

"You're ridiculous, you know that?"

"Yeah." He shot a grin over his shoulder before making a sharp turn into an empty compartment. He exhaled in relief. "Good." He flopped down onto the bench and rested his feet on the opposite bench. "Are you going to sit, or what?" he asked, gesturing to the seat next to him. I rolled my eyes and gingerly sat down.

We sat in silence for about thirty seconds before three people shot in, all screaming over each other, tackling Hugo. I slid over in alarm, but Hugo just laughed, hugging them and smiling along with them. "Hey guys! How were your summers?"

"Oh, Merlin, it was great. You know how my parents wanted to force me into that arranged marriage, but how I was secretly dating Tommy? Well, Tommy came over to visit me when my parents were supposed to be in Japan, to visit my cousins, you know? Anyways, they forgot something or other and caught Tommy and I kissing in the living room. And guess what? They were TOTALLY okay with it! They even invited Tommy and I to go to Japan with them- that's why we weren't at the Burrow, by the way. Granted, the only reason why is because Tommy is a Nott, and they're a prestigious pureblood family, but whatever, you know? The only problem is now my parents are going to expect me to marry Tommy." She immediately shot a worried glance to the boy at her side, who was looking at her with an amused expression. "Not that I don't want to marry you. I do. Just not yet."

Tommy smirked at the girl that I presumed to be Amanda before leaning over and giving her a quick peck. "In summary, our summer was great. How was yours? Hugo? Lorcan?"

Lorcan stretched his arms above his head. "It sucked. I can get any girl, but I tried to get Lily to hook up with me all summer, and she refused! For the whole summer! Who does that?"

"Someone who wants to be treated with respect," I put in, still looking out of the window. Silence followed my answer. I turned at them, jutting out my chin. "What?"

"You're Grace Waterrose, right?" Amanda asked. "You're Lillian's sister." I nodded. "She's pretty famous in Slytherin. How's she doing?"

"Good."

"Waterrose has been living with us for the summer, guys," Hugo cut in. "I guess I should introduce you all. That crazy girl is Amanda Flint, and that's her boyfriend Tommy Nott. And you met Lorcan at the Burrow summer party."

"Oh, good," Tommy grinned, slinging an arm around Amanda. "So we don't have to warn you to stay away from him."

Lorcan shoved Tommy's shoulder. "Shut up. Tell me if any hot girls walk by and wake me."

Hugo rolled his eyes. "And you wonder why Lily won't date you."

"Not date," he corrected. "Hook up."

"My point remains."

Cheerful chatter filled the room and I found that I liked listening to it. I wondered if this was what having friends felt like. Speaking of friends, an angry voice burst into our compartment nearly an hour into the ride. " _There_ you are! We've been looking for you for _hours_. I've missed you so much!"

"Hi, Genie," I sighed, half-heartedly returning the enthusiastic hug she was giving me. She squeezed in between the invisible space between me and Hugo. Lorrie and Tara, Genie's other friends, settled in, Lorrie sitting on Lorcan's lap, who was now wide awake since there was a hot girl interested in him, and Tara curling up on the floor with a book. Genie looked expectantly at me. I gave a heavy sigh. "Guys, this is Lorrie, that's Tara, and this one is Genie. Those people are Amanda, Tommy, Lorcan, and Hugo. Got it, good."

I pulled out my sketchbook and ignored everyone for the next hour of the ride. I didn't even look twice when Natasha came in with her equally slutty friend, Crystal. I just closed my eyes. I seemed that I wasn't really able to control my eyes around her. I wasn't able to control them around Hugo either, but truthfully, I think that the only reason that I couldn't control them around Tabitha was because the feelings I had towards her were because of Hugo. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but in my head it does, so there.

I had already done about ten sketches of the feel in the compartment. I drew Lorcan and Lorrie, him looking bored while she tried getting his attention by playing with his hair, Crystal competing for his attention by playing with his fingers. But neither seemed to enthrall him. In fact, the only thing that seemed to get his attention was the redhead that seemed to pass our compartment a few more times than necessary.

I drew Lily and Lorcan in their staring contest, noting the waves of tension that seemed to radiate off of both of them. But neither one of them went to each other. Lily stayed with her friends, watching him through the window, and Lorcan didn't move Lorrie off of his lap, even when he saw the anger in the redhead's eyes.

I drew Amanda and Tommy, cuddled up together in their seat. Tommy had rested his head in the chatty girls lap, and she was talking to Genie, running her fingers through her boyfriend's hair. Genie was being her usual bubbly self, but I could tell that Amanda didn't trust her. I didn't blame her. I knew what Genie was really like, and she was a rotten person.

I drew Hugo and Tabitha, who were kissing in the corner. I ignored the twinge of annoyance and focused on them, trying to get their lines right. Unfortunately, watching them snog changed the color of my eyes. Amanda looked at me, saying excitedly, "In this light, your eyes look almost dark green, Grace!"

I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting until I knew that my eyes returned to their normal blue. "Must've been a trick of the light," I said innocently. In the commotion, Hugo and Tabitha had broken apart, the latter looking as though she wouldn't mind spearing me through my eyes at that moment. I pouted at Hugo, who rolled his eyes at me, sticking his tongue out. Tabitha watched our exchange, glaring at me. "Would you mind going back into your previous position? I was in the middle of sketching your performance."

Lorcan snorted and Tommy grinned at me from around Amanda's shoulder. "You can't sketch me without my permission," Tabitha sneered. "But we'll go back to our previous position anyway."

Hugo pulled away from Tabitha before she could reattach her mouth to his. "Grace'll just sketch us anyway, Tabby. So, I wouldn't go back to snogging or we'll end up in one of Grace's art show."

"Hmm. What should we call the piece?" Lorcan pondered, pretending to stroke an imaginary beard.

"How about 'The Prat and the Slut Snogging their Brains Out of Each Other?" Tommy suggested. I bit back a laugh. Genie looked confused. She wasn't used to their type of humor, and I could tell from her face that she didn't like them. I could tell that she didn't understand why I was hanging out with them, but I had never felt more at home.

Lorcan shook his head in mock-seriousness. "I think that's too long of a name. We should shorten it to 'The Slut and Prat'. Much more catchy." Tabitha and Crystal stalked out of the room, Tabitha muttering curses at me, telling me exactly what she would do to me if I finished the drawing.

The second they left the room, Hugo threw his head back. "Thank Merlin," Hugo groaned. "A guy can only snog for so long. I mean, it's a long time, but I don't want to suck face with that bitch for that long."

"If you don't like her, why are you dating?" Tara asked in confusion.

"She's hot," Hugo said simply.

Genie shuffled over to me. "Can we talk in the hallway?" I shrugged, but followed her out anyway. "Why are you hanging out with them? They don't seem like the kind of people that you'd usually hang out with. And how did you get in with the Weasley's? They're only, like, the most powerful family ever. They're also the people who defeated the Dark Lord, and I'm not sure how I feel about that-"

"What do you mean you're not sure how you feel?" I interrupted, feeling my eyes burn behind my facade. "Voldemort wanted to murder all of the muggles and the muggle-borns. I'm muggle-born! Do you not even care anymore?"

"Of course I care! I'm just saying, the Weasley's aren't our kind of people."

"I like them. And the only reason that I 'got in' with the Weasley's is because I'm living with Hugo. My parents got taken in for child abuse." I glared at her shocked face. "And if you don't want to hang with them, then you don't have too."

"But we're best friends!"

"Friendships change. Friends grow apart," I said, returning to the compartment. I slipped into the seat next to Hugo, tucking my feet underneath me. Tommy was talking to Lorcan now about the Quidditch World Cup, Lorrie looking animated with their conversation, yelling in excitement. Amanda was chatting to Tara, who had her nose attached to her book.

"You okay?" Hugo asked. I nodded. "You already finished the picture, didn't you? Of me and Tabby?"

I grinned. "Yep. And I'm gonna multiply it and paste it all over the school!"

He laughed. "Tabitha is going to kill you."

"I know," I responded. "Will you speak at my funeral?"

"Only if you give me a preview of what's going to get you killed." I bit my lip, holding out the book. His eyes scanned the drawing. Tabitha's hair was shielding both of their faces, so I had tried to draw their personalities through their other body parts. Tabitha was gripping his wrists, which were trying to push her away. "This is really good," he finally said. "But it _would_ get you killed. Somehow, you didn't paint her in the most flattering light."

I looked up innocently. "I don't know what you're talking about."

I fell asleep. I didn't know how. I've never fallen asleep on the Hogwarts Express before, and I've certainly never fallen asleep on a _Weasley_ before, much less _Hugo_ Weasley. My head was resting on his lap and his fingers were tangled in my purple hair.

And no one was looking twice.

Genie, Tara, and Lorrie had left, probably to find some other Slytherin bitches, leaving just Amanda, Lorcan, Hugo, Tommy, and I. Amanda had fallen asleep on Tommy, her feet slung over Lorcan, and the boys were playing wizarding chess.

In fact, I'm pretty sure that nobody would've woken me up if the Trolley Lady hadn't shown up. And we all know how the boys love their food.

Especially when the food comes from Hugo's Grandma Molly, who thought that everyone in the compartment looked 'peaky' and 'underfed'. In other words, she gave everyone free candy.

Anyway, Hugo didn't exactly wake me up in the gentlest of ways. When he heard that the trolley was coming, he jumped up, causing me to tumble to the floor, banging my head. "What-?"

Hugo looked down at me apologetically. Lorcan was laughing at my fortune (which made me realize that he considered me a friend), and Amanda was rubbing at her eyes, Tommy grinning at his girlfriend. "I really hate you right now," I informed him. He held out a hand and I grabbed it, making sure to dig my nails into his skin. He flinched, but didn't protest the sting. He knew he deserved it.

Mrs. Weasley passed everyone candy and chocolates, along with hugs and pinches. She bustled off when everyone had their faces stuffed and after she made us promise that we would eat a healthy amount at Hogwarts. We all promised her we would. Well, the boys promised through their full mouths, and I rolled my eyes. I mean, please, obviously I'm going to eat food, have you _tried_ the awesomeness that is Hogwarts food?

"Why aren't you eating any chocolate?" Amanda asked thickly through a mouth of chocolate.

I sucked on my licorice wand before answering, "I don't really like chocolate." Everyone froze with their chocolates halfway to their mouths.

Silence, then absolute chaos. Everyone was shouting about how they couldn't believe that I didn't just _live for_ chocolate, etcetera, etcetera.

"MERLIN," I spoke up loudly. "You're all acting as if I've just kicked a puppy."

"No," Lorcan said, his eyes wide. "This is much, much worse."

"How can you not like chocolate?!" Amanda exclaimed.

I shrugged. "I like candy, but chocolate makes me nauseous. It always has, I'm not sure why, though."

"So, it's a health thing," Hugo said, looking relieved. "Good, I thought that you just didn't like chocolate."

"Yeah," Tommy added. "That would've been unforgivable. This, however, we can look past."

"Oh, good," I said sarcastically. "So, we can still be friends?"

Lorcan nodded seriously. "Yes. As long as you don't say that you hate any other types of sweets. Because that would be disastrous."

I held up my box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans before stuffing a handful into my mouth. "Doth vis wook wike I don't wike sweets?" They looked at me in confusion, so I swallowed before trying again: "Does this look like I don't like sweets?"

"Guess not. But how did you swallow that mouthful without vomiting out bogey flavored beans?"

"I usually get lucky. I've never really gotten a bad flavor, except once. I got leeks."

"That's not even bad!" Amanda said, throwing her arms up in exasperation. "Once, I swear I got a shit flavored bean!"

We all laughed with each other as we started telling stories of all the gross things that we've tried. And I once again wondered if this was what having friends felt like.

The guys were actually really cool about leaving the compartment so the girls could get changed. Well, Lorcan wasn't, but Tommy dragged him out practically by the ear because "you're not watching my girlfriend get changed!"

I slipped into my uniform, Amanda chatting the whole time about when she and Tommy started dating, how we were going to be the best of friends, how it would be super nice to have a girl in the group, and how she really liked my hair.

I told her about how I've never had a boyfriend (I'm not even sixteen yet, so I'm not worried), how I wanted a real friend and that I hoped she would be it, and how my sister and I were tampering with hair dye and I magically made it permanent. I didn't tell her about my eyes, even though I was just dying to. She seemed like someone that I could trust, but I'd thought that Genie was trustworthy, and look where that got me.

We were all in the same carriage. I was listening to them talk. I was amazed that they never ran out of things to talk about. I was even more surprised to find that I wanted to join their conversation.

"Guys, we're almost there!" Hugo pointed to the castle.

"We're almost home," I murmured. And for the first time, however cheesy this may sound, it almost felt true.


	4. A Colorful Beginning

I was sitting cross-legged on my bed with the curtains jerked around myself. Gigi was mad at me, which meant that Lorrie was mad at me. Tara was always reading, so I didn't notice a difference in our friendship.

What I _did_ notice was that my _skin_ was the same shade as my _hair_. "Gracie, darling," a voice giggled. I rolled my eyes. I hated that name. Gracie. "It's breakfast time. Aren't you coming?"

"No." I glared at the source of Gigi's voice. "I'm just gonna wait here for a while. You know, until your spell wears off. And it will. Because your magic is weak as shit."

Gigi's face peered through my curtains, a wicked grin on her face. "First of all, it's not my magic, it's Tara's." And that was why Tara was in Slytherin. "Second of all, I called your _new_ friends saying that I was worried about you because you just _weren't_ waking up. Oops."

I growled and lunched toward the curtains, pulling them shut. Unfortunately, it couldn't drown out the sound of her and Lorrie's giggles. I waited three minutes after they left before rushing to the bathroom. It was cluttered with random stuff, such as bras, toothbrushes, hair supplies, and different beautification projects. Even through we've only been here for one night. All of my roommates were crazy messy, while I wasn't, so their mess annoyed me to no end.

I had seven other roommates besides for Lorrie, Gigi, and Tara, but I won't go into them now. Let's just say that they were put in Slytherin for a reason: they were downright bitches, with a few sluts sprinkled in.

I carefully arranged my toothbrush and toothpaste near the sink before chancing a glance in the mirror. My entire image was purple: purple hair (which was normal) and matching skin and lips (which was not normal). They had also decided it would be funny to change the color of my pajamas. I groaned before slipping on my school robes and knotting the tie around my neck.

My eyes were red with anger and annoyance. I seriously wanted to kill Gigi right now.

I grabbed my wand and was about to wave it to try and remove whatever spell they had cast on me when I noticed four red faces looking at me from the corner of the mirror's reflection. I pressed my face into my hands and groaned. I also took the opportunity to try and massage my eyes back to normal and pray to all the gods that they hadn't noticed my eyes. I heard a snicker from behind me. I turned around, an apprehensive expression on my face.

Hugo's lips were pressed together in a line, but his eyes twinkled with laughter. Lorcan was doing nothing to stop his giggles, and Amanda had smacked Tommy to stop his chuckles. "You're looking very... colorful today." Lorcan burst into laughter at Hugo's (unoriginal) joke.

"Yeah," he snorted. "Did you do something new? New skin care routine, maybe? I just can't put my finger on it. Can you figure out what's different, Tommy?"

Tommy shook his head. "Nope. But then again, I don't have a feminine eye. I'm guessing that Mandy will have a better idea as to what's different."

"Her skin is purple," Amanda deadpanned.

The boys groaned simultaneously. "Come on, girl, you ruined the game!"

"It's not a game to me," I pointed out. "I'm a freaking color of the rainbow! Fix this, damn it!" I rolled my eyes at their stumped faces and turned to Hugo. "Weren't your cousins, like, the greatest pranksters that ever attended Hogwarts? And you don't even know how to reverse this simple color changing spell? What kind of Weasley _are_ you?"

Hugo held up his hands as a sign of surrender. I raised an eyebrow. "Well, Fred, James, and Jessica once hexed my hair green. They told me how to reverse the spell, but..."

"He's a Slytherin," Tommy interrupted. "Not a Ravenclaw."

"That's obvious," I muttered. Lorcan snorted with laughter.

Hugo rolled his eyes before closing them. "Um, _Colovaria_ is the color changing charm, so we just have to figure out the counter curse."

"Yes," Amanda interrupted. "But there is also _Multicorfors_ , which is used in Transfiguration to change the colors of clothes. And then there's also _Crinus Muto_."

Lorcan shook his head. "No, _Crinus Muto_ affects the castor, not another person." We all turned to stare at Lorcan. He looked up from a girl's lacy bra that he was admiring. That was more like the Lorcan we know and love. "What? I can pay attention in class if I want to."

"Well, did you happen to pay attention when they were discussing the counter curse to the other charms?" I asked, exasperated.

"Uh, no. I don't think so, at least. It might have been _Unticolrorses._ "

I stepped forward and grabbed Lorcan by the ear. He whimpered in protest. "If you get this counter spell wrong then you could make this permanent and I will personally kill you," I hissed into his ear. I let go of him and pushed him back. He rubbed his ear.

"Perhaps we should first charm a towel or something and test the counter spell out?" Lorcan squeaked out.

"Or," I said, smiling sweetly. "We could charm your skin bright purple and see what happens. I have a feeling that that would be far more entertaining."

"Alright, you two, break it up." Tommy stepped between me and Lorcan. "I think that we should try Lorcan's suggestion. Does anyone have an object that can be used to test if Lorcan's memory is correct?"

Lorcan looked down at the bra that was still in his hands and offered it up to Tommy. Tommy looked guiltily at Amanda, who snatched it up, a fierce expression on her face. The boys quickly diverted their eyes from the offending object. " _I_ will be the one to charm this. Everyone out except for me and Grace." Lorcan and Hugo were quick to escape the loo, but Tommy held back. He shuffled and Amanda softened. "Please go, Tommy. I'm the best at charms, and we need some space. Despite what you may think, bathrooms are _not_ meant for more than one person, let alone five."

Tommy pouted. "I don't even get a kiss?"

I coughed out the word "whipped" and Amanda shoved me. "Go away, Tommy, I want my skin to return to normal."

"Fine, fine."

Amanda put the bra down next to the sink and grabbed a towel instead. "Okay." Her brown eyes were narrowed in concentration. "We should try the two different color-changing spells and figure out if the counter spell works."

"Amanda," I said cautiously. "Is human transfiguration different than object transfiguration?"

Amanda shrugged. "I'm just going to test the counter spell out. I don't think that it'll make a difference if we're just testing out the spell." She raised her wand and did the spell. Her eyes met mine and her nose wrinkled in confusion. "Your eyes look odd in this angle. Almost a yellowish green."

I grinned, crossing my eyes. When they uncrossed, I made sure that they had returned to their normal color. Amanda laughed, and I had to smile. She had an infectious laugh, thick like fudge, yet sweet and infectious. "Do the counter curse, Mandy!"

"Oh, right! Um, _Unticolrorses_." The towel glowed slightly and returned back to its original color. "Yes! Okay, your turn." I squeezed my eyes shut and heard her mutter the counter curse. There was a warm tingling and when I looked down, my skin was back to normal.

I rushed over to the mirror. I fingered my hair. "My hair."

Amanda took a strand of my hair and let it fall through her fingers. "It's blonde."

"Well, can you turn it back to purple? I feel different with blonde hair."

"But isn't it your natural color?"

I started the water and ran my hands under the sink before flicking some at Amanda. "Who knows? Maybe I was born with purple hair?" Amanda laughed again.

Before we had the chance to fix my hair, the boys were banging at the bathroom door. "Yo, Gray! Mandy! Breakfast is gonna end in fifteen minutes. Let's hurry it up, mamacitas!"

I quickly pulled my hair back into a messy ponytail and flung open the bathroom door and breezed past the boys. Hugo grabbed my hand. His blue eyes flitted over my face and I felt my eyes tinge pink, though I was able to hide the color of my eyes from him. "Your hair is blonde." His hand brushed my face, weaving my hair between his fingers. I nodded, my throat tightening for no apparent reason. "It's pretty."

Somebody cleared their throat, and Hugo stepped back, releasing my hair. "So, have you seen Tabitha since yesterday's train ride?" Amanda asked pointedly.

Hugo shook his head. "Nah. She wanted to meet up, but I'm getting a bit sick of her. I'm thinking of breaking up with her."

"Yeah, right. You've been saying that since you've gotten together. You can't do it, you're too much of a wuss."

Hugo shoved Tommy before gesturing for us to follow him, complaining that he needed his breakfast. Amanda separated from the group, since she had divination that morning and it took forever to get up to the North Tower. I wasn't quite certain why Amanda continued that course. I had never taken it myself, but Lillian said that it was dreadful. Though before she parted ways she whispered with a grin, "You still gonna change your hair color back?" Hugo and Tommy took up the lead with Lorcan and I following a small ways back.

Lorcan was walking beside me, his hands loosely hanging in his robe pockets. I studied him, as I had last night at the dinner table. I was an artist, it was my nature to observe and figure out what people were feeling. It helped my art look more realistic.

"Stop staring at me," Lorcan said uncomfortably.

"Why?" I smirked. "I'm not checking you out or anything. Just trying to figure something out."

"All the girls check me out!" Lorcan said indignantly. "Why don't you?" I laughed and butted him with my shoulder. He dropped his joking attitude. "What are you trying to figure out?"

"Why you pay so much attention to Lily Potter. Why you say that you don't want a relationship with her, yet all you do is watch her."

"I don't _always_ watch her."

I let out a small, disbelieving laugh and grabbed my notebook from my bag. Hugo looked back at me but I gestured at him to leave us. He shot a suspicious look between me and Lorcan before resting his gaze in a glare at Lorcan. I rolled my eyes and gestured more fiercely. He nodded hesitantly and continued on with Tommy.

I flipped through the pages, Lorcan peering over my shoulder. "You're really good."

I glanced up. "Thanks." I flipped through a few more pages before landing on the one that I drew of Lorcan and Lily on the train when they had their eyes locked together. "You had two girls vying for your attention at this moment and you couldn't take your eyes off of Lily. You had no reaction to those two women on your lap, you only cared for the redhead who was watching you from the hallway."

Lorcan started to protest, but I quickly turned the page to a sketch that I had done at dinner last night. I jabbed a finger at the page. "And last night at dinner, even though you were at opposite ends of the hall, you couldn't take your eyes off of her! You barely even ate your food! And she was watching you as well! I just don't understand how you can say that you only want to 'do her' and not pursue a relationship with her! I know that I haven't known you for so long, but I get the feeling that you don't get obsessed with girls like you are with Lily! So, I'm wondering _why_."

Lorcan ran a hand through his hair. He seemed to age by just thinking about Lily. "It's complicated. And why do you care so much?"

I grinned. "You make a very interesting art project. Plus, isn't this what friends do? Help each other?"

"Friends don't get involved with relationship problems."

"So you admit that there's a relationship?"

Lorcan growled. "I don't talk about this sort of stuff."

I nodded understandably. "Yes, because boys are supposed to be macho and only talk about having sex and girls that are hot, not about actual _emotions_ , because heavens forbid you don't only think with your dick." Lorcan tried to interrupt again, but I plowed on. "And Hugo is her cousin, so that's out of the question, anyway. And Amanda doesn't think rationally about relationships, she thinks that you should always listen to your heart, without knowing why you're not following it in the first place. That leaves me, your new best friend."

Lorcan looked confused. "I lost you at Amanda."

I rolled my eyes. "Just tell me the issue. I'm in the mood to sketch something _real_." I took my charcoal out of my back and grabbed a muggle pencil, taking a seat in the hallway. I patted the space next to me and Lorcan sat down with a sigh.

"We're going to be late to class."

I shrugged. "I've got free period first. How bout you?"

"I've got Care of Magical Creatures," he admitted. "And I'm excused from that class most days since that's what my parents _do_ for a living. Usually I have to go to Hagrid during one of my free periods for an advanced course."

I smiled at him. "Fantastic! Then we're good to talk. You don't mind if I sketch in the meanwhile, do you?"

He shook his head, and I motioned for him to begin. "Um, I'm not exactly certain what you want me to tell you."

"Just start at the beginning. Why do you treat Lily differently than other girls? When did this begin?"

"I've known Lily since birth." I started sketching as he spoke, drawing inspiration from his words. "Even though she's three weeks older than me, I've always wanted to protect her. We were close friends until we got to Hogwarts." I could tell that Lorcan was trying to give me the brief version. He didn't like sharing, but I was forcing him to. I grinned at the thought. "We still talked some, but she was put into Gryffindor and I was put into Slytherin, even though we promised each other that we would end up in the same House.

"Something shifted when we were separated. We were still friends, but less so than before. And then something happened when we turned thirteen. We just stopped talking. I don't know why, but I know that something happened. She stopped talking to any male that wasn't part of her family. Whenever I tried to talk to her she would run away. But I still protected her. I still had this urge.

"My feelings to protect her have grown stronger since then," he told me. "And I really do have an attraction to her, but I don't want to act on it-"

"-because you want to protect her from everyone," I interrupted, finishing the last stroke of the drawing. "Including yourself."

Lorcan shrugged. "I guess so."

"Wanna see?" I asked, holding out the sketch book. He took it in his hands, studying the lines. It was a picture of Lorcan with angel wings curved around Lily. They both looked strong, but it was made to look as though Lorcan was protecting her, even if she didn't need protection.

He looked up at me, opening and closing his mouth. He finally just let out a sigh and checked his watch. "Next classes start in ten minutes. I better head up there. I've got Transfiguration next, and Valentina will kill me if I miss her class." We got up and walked down the hall in silence for a while. "My mum's an artist," he said suddenly. "She draws pictures of the creatures that my dad finds. She'd love to see your work. She runs a magazine, you know."

I nodded slowly. "Maybe." And we each went on to our respective classrooms.

I groaned. "I hate the first day of school," I complained to Amanda. We were doing homework in the library while the boys did who-knows-what. I'm pretty sure that they expected Amanda to let them copy her homework, but there was no way that that was happening.

Amanda nodded in agreement. "I know. It's like they expect us to remember all this information even though we were just magic-free for three months! And then they think that they can give us three months worth of work! What is with that?"

"Well," a snobby voice put in. "The teachers probably want to make sure that the _dumb_ students are separated out from the _smart_ students. You know, the students who actually _did_ their summer work."

"And which category would you fall into, _Tabitha_?" I shot back. "Because I'm pretty sure that you did your summer work but didn't understand any of it. So, I _think_ that makes you dumb, but please. Enlighten us."

Tabitha narrowed her eyes. "Don't forget that you're on my hit-list, Waterrose."

"And you're on mine. And I've got a bit more leverage than you do." I smirked, reminding her of the picture that I had sketched of her and Hugo.

Her face grew into a mean smile. "But you won't put that up, _darling_. You wouldn't want to paint precious Hugo in a bad light, now would you?"

I leaned in closer to her. "The thing is," I hissed back. "Hugo isn't the one that's painted like a slut."

Tabitha jerked back. She flung her hair over her shoulder and stalked off, her too-short skirt attracting the notice of young boys, who were goggling her arse. Disgusting.

"She's an arse," Amanda noted, scribbling something out of her essay. A hand reached out and stole Mandy's essay. She didn't even bother trying to get it back. "Just get it back to me before DADA tomorrow."

Lorcan whooped. "Awesome, thanks Mandy!"

Amanda grinned over her shoulder at the retreating boy. "No problem."

"I thought that you weren't going to let them use your work anymore," I questioned.

Amanda smirked. "I'm not." She pulled a scroll out of her bag and smoothed it out on the table in front of her. "This is my real essay. Lorcan has an essay with all of the wrong answers."

"And Tommy and Hugo?"

"Hugo writes his own essays and Tommy knows better than to ask from me. When we first started dating, I told him that I wouldn't be used simply because of my brain. I told him that I wouldn't give him any answers for the questions, even if I _was_ his girlfriend."

I rolled up my essay on Properties of the Moonstone and leaned across the table. "How did you and Tommy get together? I mean, you told me _when_ you got together, but never how it happened."

Amanda laughed and the librarian, Madame Pince, quickly hurried over to shush us. Amanda gathered her things while muttering, "We get it, you old bat, we're going. Let's walk and talk, Gray." I felt warn inside, like the first time they had used the nickname for me. We exited the library and Amanda linked her arm through mine. "Why are you suddenly so interested in all of our love lives? Lorcan told me that you cornered him and forced him to talk through his shit."

"I didn't realize that I was focussing on your guys' love lives. I honestly just wanted to get to know you guys better, and Tommy seems like such a huge part of your life, so I thought that I'd ask about him. It's not like I would ask Hugo about Tabitha."

"That's because you have a huge crush on him," Amanda said.

I flushed and shook my head. "I really don't. He's more like an annoying little brother. If little brothers were able to be older than you, that is."

Amanda gave me a disbelieving look, but I was trying to convince myself that I didn't have feelings that weren't completely platonic towards Hugo, so I wasn't going to let a talk with Amanda get my hopes up or anything. "So," I prompted, trying to change the subject. "Tell me about yourself. You don't have to talk about Tommy or anything, I was honestly just curious."

Amanda shook her head with a small smile. "Everything in my life is somehow tied in with my relationship with Tommy. My parents, my lifestyle, my boyfriend, obviously." I tugged her over to a small alcove that we could sit in and pulled out my sketchbook. She glanced down at it, but continued to talk without asking any questions. "Plus I just like talking about Tommy," Amanda added, with her usual Amanda charm.

"We met when we were eleven years old. I had always been sheltered as a child since my parents were super anti-muggle and muggleborns, so I wasn't allowed outside unless they were certain that the only people present were pureblooded witches and wizards, and those were the kids that I was allowed to play with, which was great and all, and I do love my parents, but that's why it took so long to meet Tommy.

"He was the only one who was nice to me, that first day at school. The other kids knew me as the girl who still went by blood standards and wouldn't be caught dead talking to me. Actually, they would talk to me, but only to tease me about being a Deatheater and siding with Voldemort. The first train ride was the hardest. Nobody would let me sit in their compartment, so I had to sit in the hallway alone.

"When I was sorted into Slytherin, it only seemed to reaffirm the idea that I was evil, even though those stereotypes hadn't existed in years. I was writing a letter to my parents about how I wanted to come back home when I first saw Tommy, and I knew that they would agree since they didn't want me to go to Hogwarts in the first place. They originally wanted me to be homeschooled to 'keep me away from muggleborn riffraff.'" Amanda gave a mocking smile. "Tommy had read the letter over my shoulder-"

"Oh, so he was a nosy bugger even back then?" I interrupted. Amanda laughed, though there was a sorrowful expression in her face.

"I'm sorry, it's hard for me to talk about my past, I suppose."

"Is that why you haven't smiled that much? Normally, you're always smiling and talking a hundred miles a minute." She stuck her tongue out at me and I wrinkled my nose back at her. "Continue on, please. I didn't mean to interrupt."

"Yes you did."

I shrugged and gave a small smile. "Yeah, I did. But seriously, continue on. I'm doing a series of sketches, see?" I showed her a half-finished picture of a younger Tommy leaning over a little Amanda, who is writing a letter. I flipped back a page and showed her a quick sketch of a young Amanda sitting in the hallway of the train.

Amanda touched the page lightly. "It's amazing," she breathed. "You do have talent, you know."

"Thanks. Please continue."

"Um, okay. Well, Tommy read the letter over my shoulder and he just burst out. He told me that he thought it was ridiculous to leave Hogwarts, especially before school has really started. He went on and on, giving me reasons of why I should stay. And all I remember thinking was that this strange boy had beautiful eyes and that I'd like to get to know this strange boy with the green eyes. So I never sent the letter, and I just stayed by Tommy's side. He became friends with Hugo and Lorcan, so by default, I became friends with them. And they didn't judge me and soon the four of us became inseparable."

"So that's how you became the fab four."

"Well, now we're the fab five," she corrected. I grinned. "Now, are you going to stop interrupting me or not? I thought you wanted to sketch out my life story."

"Fine," I said, rolling my eyes, flipping a page in my notebook. "Tell me about this man you were promised to."

Amanda's nose scrunched up and she pushed her tongue to the side of her mouth. "Ugh. Dameon. He was a pureblood and about ten years older than me. His family bought me off when I was born, so I've literally been his for life. But he was horrid and I hated him, but I didn't want to disappoint my parents, so whenever he came by to see me, I had to pretend to be utterly and completely in love with him, and he did the same with me, I'm certain. We didn't cooperate with each other in private, but we were the perfect pureblood couple in public.

"But I wasn't technically his until I graduated from Hogwarts. So even though I knew that no relationship that I had in Hogwarts could last, I was still permitted to have them."

"So, how did Tommy ask you out? Did he know about Dameon?"

Amanda narrowed her eyes. "Now, Grace, what did I say about interrupting?"

"Not to do it?"

She nodded importantly. "Yes. So shut up and let me continue! Tommy had never dated, despite the fact that he had been asked out by many different girls. I sometimes asked him why but he never gave me an answer. Then, at the beginning of the last year, Tommy kissed me. We were laughing about something in the corridor and he just kissed me and then walked away with this smug grin on his face. When I asked him about it, he just said that it was something he had always wished to do and then he did it again.

"I didn't tell him about Dameon, even after we started dating." I let out a low whistle and Amanda shoved me with a laugh. "Yeah, that took a while for Tommy to get over. I told him about five months after we started dating, on our anniversary." I whistled again and Amanda shoved me again, this time without the laugh. "Yes, I know! But it all worked out in the end, didn't it. _Anyway_ , he broke up with me after I told him and I got so mad at Dameon for coming between us that I wrote him to tell him that I was dating someone at Hogwarts who I liked a lot and that I was not going to be forced into a marriage with him. But Tommy intercepted the letter and came to understand the situation.

"And you know the rest from the train ride over. I am now only obligated to Tommy and it's wonderful!"

"Have you told him that you love him?"

Amanda blushed scarlet. "Not exactly. But I will! Eventually."

"Ah, talking about the couple known as Tomanda?" I looked up through my eyelashes to see Hugo's smirking face. "Nice one, giving the fake essay to Lorcan. He showed it to me to see if I wanted to copy it."

"Did you tell him that all of the answers were wrong?" Amanda asked worryingly.

Hugo snorted. "Of course not. I'm not stupid."

"That's debatable," I muttered, shading a region of my drawing.

Hugo rolled his eyes. "Ha ha, Grace Waterrose. I only came to get you because it's nearly dinner and I know that Gray missed breakfast this morning and we can't have her going hungry."

Amanda stood up and brushed her skirts off. "Well, I'm sure that it would be horribly annoying to lose your personal punching bag, so you two be off to dinner."

"And you?" I questioned.

"I've got a dinner date with Tommy! He asked the house elves to prepare us something, and you know how they love to help. Private room and everything." She wiggled her eyebrows.

I waved her off. "Okay, go. We don't need to hear the details. Go, we'll be fine."

I could feel Hugo staring at me as Amanda left. I turned to him and raised a questioning eyebrow. He gave me a half-smile. "I'm glad that you're meshing with our friend group." I shot him a look to suggest that I didn't believe him and he shot me a sheepish grin. "I'm just not used to you with blonde hair."

I took a strand of my ponytail and curled it around my fingers. "Do you not like it? I want to dye it back to purple or blue."

"You should do streaks so that there's still blonde. I like the blonde." We began to walk to the Great Hall.

"Yes, because everything I do somehow depends on you." I rolled my eyes and he slung an arm around my shoulder.

"Aw, you know it does."

And in my head, I admitted that some of the things that I did were based on what Hugo thought of them. Oh, dear Merlin, I... I shook my head as I listened to Hugo's chatter.

Because I could _not_ fancy Hugo Weasley.

 _ **Authors Note: I know, I'm a terrible person! I'm SOOOO sorry for not updating in forever and I'm not going to give any lame excuses. Pleaaassseeee enjoy and REVIEW!**_

 _ **All of my love,**_

 _ **HPsea**_


	5. Practice Becomes Perfection

I listened to Hugo's advice. I streaked my hair with blue, purple, and pink streaks, leaving the blonde visible. Some people in Slytherin insulted me because I wasn't representing my House's colors, but who the hell cares.

I was more worried about the letter that my sister sent me. And Quidditch tryouts, which were happening today. We had to replace two chasers and our seeker, so I really had to be in the zone to try and help choose someone compatible with our team.

Maybe I should start from the beginning of the day.

I took a deep breath and exhaled sharply through my nose. It was times like these that I wished that Amanda was in my year. I had taken to showering first in the morning and checking all of my products for spells and hexes. I never realized that Genie, Lorrie, and, yes, even Tara, were the bullies of the Slytherin house in Fifth Year, probably because I used to be the fourth bully. But they could make anyone do anything, and the anything that they wanted the people to do was hate me.

I closed my eyes and tried to get them back from the red color they had turned. I quickly dried my hair and slipped into my robes. I pulled my hair into a ponytail, grabbed my book bag, hopped over the clothes and textbooks that littered the floor, and went down to the Common Room.

It was still early in the morning, so I took some of my schoolwork out of the bag and started reading the chapter of Transfiguration that I needed to have summed by the end of the day. It was OWL year, which was exhausting. All of the teachers had put on the pressure and I've never had more homework. The hardest classes were Potions, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Ancient Runes. I was pretty good at Transfiguration since, you know, my eyes and the private lessons with Mcgonagall. I was also taking Charms, History of Magic, Herbology, and Care of Magical Creatures. And then there was Quidditch.

I ran a hand over my face and groaned. And then an owl landed on my head. I grabbed the letter it was carrying and shooed it away. I didn't feel like dealing with Merlin today. I noted Lillian's handwriting on the letter. _The trial_.

My hands shook. I wanted to open it to find out what happened, but I couldn't. I carefully tucked the letter between the pages of my Transfiguration textbook. "Hey." Someone jumped over the couch and sat next to me. I snapped my textbook shut, the letter hidden in it. "Are you okay? It's still pretty early. Why're you up?"

I glanced at Hugo. "People don't bother me this early. And I've got a lot to think about." He grabbed a strand of my hair and started weaving his fingers through it. "What're you doing?" I asked, exasperated.

"Isn't this what girls do when they're talking? Play with hair and stuff?" He put on a high-pitched voice and started giggling. "Oh my gosh, did you see Hugo today, he's just so hot!"

I shook my head. "Nah. He's too arrogant, and not that cute. Personally, I think Tommy's hotter."

Hugo let go of my hair, gaping. "You did not just say that!"

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, relax, you know you're hot." He froze, a half-grin on his face. "I mean, according to everyone else. Not me. I mean..."

Hugo laughed. "It's fine, Waterrose." He flipped back off the couch. "By the way. You're pretty hot too." I laughed, rolling my eyes. "Wanna head to breakfast?"

I shook my head. "I think that I'm going to stick around for a bit." I held up the transfiguration book. "Reading."

"Right then. Do you want any help? I reckon I still know a bit about Fifth Year Transfiguration. I mean, they made us study for the bloody OWLs for an eternity." He reached out to grab my book, but I clutched it to my chest. He could _not_ find my letter. Especially not before I had read it myself.

"I'm okay." My eyes were burning with the lying teal, but I refused to let them change.

He studied my eyes closely, his brown eyes combing my own for any trace of a lie. I held his gaze, the color of my eyes remaining consistent. He shook his head, his mouth pulling up at the corner. "I don't need to read your eyes to know you. But you don't have to tell me." Hugo stretched. "I've gotta go get ready for Quidditch tryouts."

"Crap! I forgot that Quidditch tryouts were today!"

"Waterrose! We need you there by eight o'clock today. Otherwise, I'll have no choice but to give your spot away. And we _need_ you, Waterrose."

"I wasn't going to miss it," I told him, my eyes narrowed. "I wouldn't do that, Mr. _Captain_. I was just telling a _friend_ that I forgot about Quidditch tryouts."

Hugo ran a hand over his face. "I'm sorry. It's just that it's my first year as captain, and I guess I'm just worried, especially since half of our team is gone."

"You think that you won't be a good captain," I stated.

"My family doesn't have the best track record."

"I don't think that you should let your family define who you are. I know that I don't want my family to define me. Just be you and you'll be a great captain."

He looked at me, no trace of a smile on his face. He nodded. "Thanks, Gray." I smiled at the nickname.

"Duh, Hugo. Hey, what are you doing up this early in the morning?"

"Amanda said that you'd be up early. I figured you could use some company."

"Thanks, but you don't need to. Sometimes the quiet is nice."

"I kinda wanted to hang with you." Hugo made his way toward the portrait hole. "Don't forget, Quidditch tryouts, eight o'clock."

I nodded. It was now seven o'clock, so I quickly ran back up to change into my Quidditch robes.

Quidditch tryouts were going terribly. I wasn't going to lie.

Eight chasers had tried out and none of them were any good. I could sense that Hugo was losing hope. After the ninth chaser failed to score a single goal without a Keeper even guarding the goals, Hugo ran an agitated hand through his hair and called for a break in tryouts.

Lorcan, who was a chaser, muttered, "This tryout is about to get a whole lot worse." He pointed to the field where Tabitha was stalking toward Hugo, a broomstick in her hand. Her voice rang across the field, "I would like to tryout for chaser."

I sprang up in my seat and ran toward the field, where Hugo and Tabitha were arguing. "You can't just march onto the field and ask to tryout-"

"Why not?" Tabitha shot back stubbornly.

"Well, let me think," Hugo said sarcastically. "You showed up late for tryouts, and I won't have uncommitted people on the team, and you don't get along with anyone on my team because you're a downright bitch to all to them! Not to mention you know nothing about Quidditch."

Tabitha crossed her arms. "Well, excuse me for wanting to spend a little more time with my boyfriend."

Hugo laughed bitterly. "I'm not your boyfriend on the pitch, Tabby. I'm captain. And I can't deal with you right now."

"If you don't let me try out, I'm done with you."

"Fine by me," Hugo responded, turning his back on Tabitha. She turned toward me with a screech. "This is all your fault! Before you came mucking about, Hugo and I were doing fine! We were in love!"

Lorcan stepped in front of me, brandishing his wand. "Don't kid yourself, Tabitha. Hugo's been wanting to break up with you for a long while now. And if you think that you've ever been in love with anyone, then you're sorely mistaken."

Tabitha pursed her lips and I saw sadness behind her eyes (eyes are very expressive). But she just straightened her back and walked off of the field. Hugo followed her with his eyes tiredly. He looked at me desperately. "I didn't mean to do it like that."

I turned my eyes a sympathetic shade of blue-gray. "I gotta go to the bathroom."

"Waterrose," Hugo growled. "You have to be at tryouts."

"At the rate that this fiasco is going, it'll still be going on when I get finished with the loo," I told him. He glared at me and I blew him a small kiss as I walked off of the pitch. He rolled his eyes at me and yelled at the tryoutees (tryouters? competitors, I suppose?) to get back onto the pitch.

Personally, I had never had a boyfriend, so I had never gone through a breakup. But my old "friends" always went crying to the girls bathroom on the fourth floor because if you didn't know where you were going, it was really hard to find. In other words, it was a private place to cry.

I tentatively made my way toward the bathroom. "Tabitha?" I called quietly.

She turned from where she was curled up against the back wall. "I didn't even like him," she sniffled. "But he was cool."

"Sorry?"

"Hugo," she explained, not even sounding sarcastic. Just defeated. "I didn't like him. And I'm only friends with Crystal and them because I'm expected to be. And the Weasley's are a respectable family, and Hugo was the only one who was available, even if he is a Slytherin. My parents didn't want me to be in Slytherin, you know."

"I'm a little confused," I said, sitting down next to her. "You're a bitch, no offense. Like, one of the meanest girls in the year. And you're just telling me all this, not even acting like we were ever enemies. Acting like we're friends."

Tabitha looked at me with a small smile. "I care about what people think too much. So I act the way people expect me to." She rested her head against the wall. "I don't even know who I am anymore. But being mean makes me feel powerful. And my mum always said that the mean girls are the most popular and loved at Hogwarts."

"She was wrong," I told her. "Your mum."

"I know. But it's hard to change."

"You seem to be doing a pretty good job," I told her. "But why are you telling me this?"

"Because I figure that you're pretty good at keeping secrets," she said matter-of-factly. "I mean, it's gotta be hard keeping your eyes a secret."

"What did you just say?" My neck cracked with the speed I flung it around.

"Your eyes change color," Tabitha said. "You've gotten better at hiding it over the years, but when you first got here your eyes changed color all of the time. And on the train ride over they were flashing like mad whenever you saw Hugo and I together."

"I feel like you should be in Ravenclaw" I told her. "You're rather clever."

"I know." She smiled, and shoved my shoulder jokingly.

"What else have you noticed?"

"Well, right now, Hugo's probably pissed at you because you're missing tryouts. He's also worried about you, because he really likes you and wants to make sure that you haven't been abducted or anything since you've been in the bathroom for nearly fifteen minutes."

I gave a laugh of disbelief. "Wow. And why have you been such a bitch?"

"I told you. I don't know who I am anymore."

"Hey," I said after a moment of silence. "If you never liked Hugo, who do you like?"

She glared at me, looking much more like the self I was used to seeing. "It's none of your business, Waterrose, so back off."

"Sorry."

Tabitha looked at me carefully, before shaking her head. "No, I'm sorry. Honestly, I don't know who I am. I switch between who I think I am and how I act normally."

"Hugo said that you were really nice," I recalled. "I didn't believe him until now."

"We talked sometimes," she told me. "When he wasn't in the mood to snog, we talked. But he's kinda conceited and annoying, and I only really stuck with him that long because he's hot."

"He is, isn't he," I said without thinking. Tabitha grinned at me. "Shut up." Another pause. It was weird, but Tabitha didn't seem that bad. Just confused. And pressured by her parents and society and her friends. She was resting her head on her knees. She had washed off her makeup for the chaser tryouts. Which reminded me... "Are you any good at playing chaser?"

Tabitha shrugged. "I think so. My parents don't approve of the sport, but I've always loved playing chaser. And I used to practice all of the time in secret. And I wasn't going to tryout, that's why I was late. But all of the chasers sucked, and I _do_ want Slytherin to win, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Sorry for flipping out on you, by the way. I was playing the jealous girlfriend."

"Never mind that," I brushed off. "We have to get back to tryouts."

"Why? Hugo told me not to bother trying out and chaser tryouts are probably over by now."

I gave her a look of disbelief. "The chasers all sucked. And there were only ten who were there to tryout. We need you."

I grabbed her hand and we ran out to the pitch, where Hugo was screaming at the five chasers that he had narrowed it down to. He didn't look particularly pleased with his selections. "Hugo," I called. His face switched from relieved to pissed off in two seconds flat.

"Where the hell have you been? And why the hell is Tabitha with you? And-"

"Shut up," I told him. "I'm part of the team. And you said that you value my opinion, right?"

"Right," he said wearily.

"So I'm telling you that you should probably let Tabitha tryout for chaser."

"But you hate Tabitha," he said incuriously.

"Nah," I said with a wave of my hand. "We're besties. Also, she can play chaser. These doofuses can't."

Hugo studied my eyes, and for once he wasn't looking for a change in the color. He was just looking for honesty. I stared determinedly back into his eyes. He sighed defeatedly. "Fine. Get on your broom," he told Tabitha. "Score five goals without a keeper and you can tryout properly."

Tabitha swallowed nervously. "Okay." I gave her an encouraging smile and handed her her broomstick. She straddled it and did a couple of practice laps before grabbing the Quaffle.

She was fast. She did some tricks before scoring one, two, three, four, five goals.

Hugo came up next to me. "What happened? I mean, you hated her."

I looked up at him, but he was still watching Tabitha fly around the pitch. "She's not that bad. Just confused. I think that flying will help her."

"So are you guys, like, friends now?" He finally looked at me. I shrugged. "I trust you, Gray. But-"

"She knows my secret," I cut him off quickly. "Since first year. And she hasn't told anyone."

"Neither have I," he pointed out.

"Jealous?" I smirked.

Hugo grinned sheepishly. "No. But seriously Gray. What'd you think?"

I looked at Hugo and reached up to whisper in his ear, "I trust you. You're decision." I went back on my feet and Hugo nodded once. Before I could react, he kissed my cheek, and then turned back into Captain Weasley. I held a hand to my cheek in surprise. Tabitha winked at me from across the field.

Needless to say, we had one amazing chaser and one okay chaser by the end of the tryouts, Tabitha Finch-Fletchly and Cameron Tyler, and one uber fast seeker, Allison Smith.

"Thank you." I slammed the the Transfiguration notebook that held my note from Lillian shut, hiding it from the intruder.

"Huh?"

Tabitha raised an eyebrow. "I can't talk long. I gotta get back to my 'real' friends before they think that you've, like, hypnotized me into talking with you. But I wanted to thank you for getting Hugo to let me try out."

I shook my head. "It wasn't that big of a deal."

"He only would've done it for you. Believe me." Tabitha glanced nervously over her shoulder. "I'll talk to you later, yeah? See you on the field. Oh, and you should open the letter. But do it with Hugo, he'll help you."

"What are you?" I asked.

"Observant," she said, walking back to Crystal. "On a completely unrelated note, I'm also the top of my class in Divination." She winked at me.

I clutched my Transfiguration book more tightly in my hands as she strutted away.

Hugo was on the other side of the Common Room talking to Lorcan, Tommy, and Amanda. I strode confidently toward him and grabbed him by the ear. He yelped and quickly protested, rubbing his ear once he had gotten it away from me. The gang behind him was howling with laughter, of course. "I need to talk to you."

"And you couldn't have just asked like a bloody normal person," he complained.

"When have I ever been normal?" I looked at him nervously, my eyes wanting to bleed through my facade. "Will you please come?"

Hugo rolled his eyes with a small grin. "Of course, Gray. C'mon." He grabbed my hand, and Lorcan and Tommy catcalled us. I glared at them and pulled my hand out of Hugo's, giving them the finger. Amanda slapped Tommy on the shoulder, which shut him up pretty quickly.

"Are you okay, Gray?" Amanda asked. I nodded. "Okay. Let's have a girls night soon, though."

My eyes widened in horror, but I let out a strangled, "Okay," and grabbed Hugo's hand, and led him out of the Slytherin Common room.

"What's up?" he asked as soon as we were out of the Slytherin Common Room. I pulled him behind the tapestry of an ancient wizard, which led to a secret room that I'd discovered during my first week. I figured that Hugo already knew about it since his face showed no surprise. He just made himself comfortable on one of the beanbags that I had dragged into the corridor.

I don't know why I was surprised. He was a Weasley after all.

I let out a nervous breath. "I'm not sure why I'm trusting Tabitha."

He had his hands behind his head. "Neither am I, to be honest."

"Shut up a minute." I thought carefully about what I was going to say. "I think that she's had a lot of pressure from her parents, especially her mum. I don't think that she knows who she is."

Hugo's eyebrows drew together. "Did you drag me out here to talk about Tabitha, then?"

"No, I just meant that I was listening to her advice." I let out a nervous breath again. "Lillian wrote about my parents trial."

Hugo immediately sat up. "What did she say? What's happening? Are they going to jail?"

"I didn't open it. I'm too nervous," I told him, wrapping a piece of hair around my finger until the blood rushed to the tip. Hugo gently took my hand and pulled me next to him in the beanbag, which was only really meant for one person.

"Want me to read it to you?"

I shook my head. "No. Just... be here."

I tore open the letter with shaky hands.

 _Dearest Sister,_

 _Wow, I never thought that I would ever use those words to start a letter. It sounds so old fashioned, don't you think? How are you? How's Hugo and your other new friends. I really_ am _glad that you're rid of Genie and those girls, though I must say, pranking seems a bit immature (although it was a brilliant prank... no offense). Your new hair looks super fab, by the way. I showed the picture to Tammi and Sally and they were super jealous._

 _I'm mostly just rattling on to avoid telling you about the trial._

 _It didn't go very well._

 _The town already doesn't like Dusty because he's gay and our small town is surprisingly narrow-minded about that sort of thing. Not to mention that mum and dad are well-respected in the community, for some reason that I still fail to understand, so the jury was pretty biased. And the judge was that woman with the fake red hair that thinks that kids are her personal servants since they aren't "fully grown" or whatever. I think her name is Verba Butler. In other words, everyone was partial to letting mum and dad off of the hook._

 _Dustin and I are going to see if we can get them to do another trial with an impartial judge and jury._

 _Anyway, mum and dad technically still have custody of you, Tammi, Sally, and Caleb, and the child "protective" services are going to check in on the living conditions at the house before moving them back to the house. And they want to check out your boarding school. We're thinking about obliviating you from memory, since they obviously can't go to Hogwarts. Or maybe flooing you out here for a day to the local public school and say that we transferred you or something._

 _The whole thing is quite complicated. *huge sigh*_

 _We're hoping that the younger kids will be allowed to stay at the Creevey's after the inspection. Mum and dad shouldn't care. They never have before. And I am_ not _ever letting those kids back in that house again. Not after what we've gone through._

 _And Grace, don't you dare think about coming home. Dustin and I have this under control and getting involved at this point would not be good. And quite frankly, it would be stupid._

 _And don't shut down either. Talk to your friends! Be YOU! And don't worry._

 _I'll write or send Minnie when we know more._

 _All of my love,_

 _your sister_

 _Lillian_

I looked up at Hugo. I wasn't crying, I was not going to cry. But I didn't know if I could control my eyes. And right now, they were switching from dark blue to red to silver.

Hugo was still intently studying the letter, his blue eyes were a little bit watery. He quickly glanced down at me and hugged me to his chest. "How bad were things?"

"Um," my voice was choked up. "Not great. But I really can't talk right now."

He was quiet for a while. His arms were tight around me and his fingers kept moving on my back, like he was anxious about something. His cheek was resting on the top of my head, and as I snuggled deeper into his chest, I could hear the steady beat of his heart, which was rapidly picking up its pace.

I don't know how long we were there, but we stayed there for a long while, just breathing.

An owl hooted and I broke away from Hugo. I looked into his eyes, which were too blue for words. "Wanna go get hot chocolate from the Kitchens, then bed?"

"Separately," I said automatically, still stuffy from trying not to cry. He gave me half a grin and lifted me onto a separate beanbag before getting up himself. He offered his hand to me and pulled me up. We stared at each other for a little bit before he took my hand and led me out from the small area from behind the tapestry. We walked toward the Kitchens hand-in-hand and I leaned my head against his shoulder. I smiled the best that I could at him, trying to convey my thanks. He squeezed my hand more tightly.

And we just kept walking as though we could leave everything behind. Especially the letter.


	6. Merlin, Help Me

Mondays are the worst. I'm pretty sure that that is a truth universally acknowledged.

I trudged down to the Great Hall, my bag slung over my shoulder.

"Good morning, sunshine," Lorcan laughed when I sat down on his lap. My eyes weren't open enough to find my own seat. I grunted and grabbed his toast, which was messily smeared with jam and butter. "Hey!"

"I'm tired," I told him. "I can do what I want." They all stared at me, watching me eat my (Lorcan's) toast. I looked at them and groaned, moving off of Lorcan's lap. "Hugo, you suck."

"What?!"

"You told them about the letter."

"Yeah, well you don't tell us anything," Amanda said. "We're your friends, too! We all love and care about you. If something's going on with you, we want to know." Lorcan and Tommy nodded in agreement.

"Whatever," I grumbled. "I'm trying to forget about it, so can we talk about something else?"

"How about those Quidditch tryouts?" Lorcan announced. He shoved a muffin in his mouth and continued in a muffled voice, "I mean, I wasn't expecting Tabitha to be that good, and you finally got rid of her-good bloody riddance-and then Tyler didn't seem that bad, he'll get better with practice, but I-"

"-don't think that Smith is gonna be able to beat Lysander as Seeker, I agree," Amanda added.

Tommy rested his chin in his hands, his eyes blurring. Tommy didn't like or care about Quidditch. Amanda was the only one that liked Quidditch in our group that didn't play. Her mother played for the Appleby Arrows for a year, and she was a huge fan. Unfortunately, she couldn't play to save her life.

"Oh! Speaking of Quidditch! I talked to Headmistress Clearwater and she said that I could take over as Quidditch announcer!"

"That's fan-fucking-tastic!" Lorcan high-fived her from across the table.

Amanda shoved Tommy, who was still daydreaming. "Earth to Tommy? Thomas Nott!" He jerked and looked at her guiltily.

"Yes?"

"I'm going to be Quidditch announcer!"

I was relieved that Tommy sounded genuinely enthusiastic when he responded. "That's amazing, Mandy! You'll be great." He kissed her quickly on the cheek, before standing up. "We better get to Defense Against the Dark Arts. What do you have first, Gray?"

"Um, Transfiguration. I don't know how I'm going to focus," I groaned. "I bloody hate Mondays."

"Aren't you the top of your class in Transfiguration?" Lorcan asked. Hugo winked at me. I glared at him before turning back to Lorcan.

"Yeah, but not on Mondays. Mondays are my exception."

"I know something that might get you through this Monday!" Amanda said excitedly. "We're having a sleepover on Friday night!"

"Oh, joy."

"I know!" Amanda squealed, her eyes shining with excitement. Lorcan silently imitated Amanda behind her back and Hugo snorted, crossing his eyes at me. I stifled a giggle. "I thought we could invite some other girls and maybe host it in the Joint Common Room! Ooh, I have an idea! We can invite all of the girls in the school, and whoever wants to come can join us! We're going to have so much fun!"

"Are you serious?" I asked in disgust. "You're kidding right?"

"Yeah," Lorcan said in mock indignation. "Where do we come into the picture? Aren't we invited?"

"Yeah," Hugo complained, holding out his hand. "I want to paint nails and talk about cute boys and braid someone's hair!" Lorcan and Hugo fake-giggled over each other and the only thing that was holding Tommy back from joining them was Amanda's death glare and the threat that she would ditch him the second he started laughing.

"You'll see," Amanda said, straightening her back. "Gray and I are going to have a blast. And _you guys_ aren't going to ruin our fun." Amanda turned to look at me, and I hid my laughter and annoyance. (I didn't do girls night.) "We'll meet later to plan," she announced, then quickly dragged Tommy away.

"Wow," Hugo laughed. "You're so freaking screwed! Amanda goes crazy with her parties and-"

"-you don't seem like the partying type," Lorcan snickered.

"I will literally murder the both of you," I growled at them.

"I don't think that that's the correct meaning of 'literally'. Honestly, you'd never be able to kill us. We're too adorable." He gave me his 'cute face,' which consisted of him sticking out his bottom lip and making his blue eyes widen to a comical degree. Lily Potter, AKA the love of Lorcan's life, chose to walk by at this moment. She snorted when she noticed Lorcan's expression and muttered, "Classy, Lorc," and continued walking with her friends.

His face melted from a fake pout into a real one as he followed her red hair swing receding with his eyes. Hugo laughed at him and held out a hand to haul me off the bench. "C'mon, doofus. I'll walk you to class."

"No thanks," I said, but accepted his hand anyway. I was cranky and Hugo could usually talk me down. We left Lorcan pining after Lily.

My hand was still tucked in Hugo's when we started down to Transfiguration. "What's up?" he asked, squeezing my hand.

I groaned. "I hate Mondays."

"I gathered," Hugo laughed.

"They're just so... Monday-ish."

"Ah, yes. I hate that Monday-ishness." Hugo nodded in mock-seriousness.

"I hate you," I told him.

He pulled me closer. "No, you don't. C'mon, tell me what's wrong." I glanced up at him with ice blue eyes. "Okay, so you're panicked about something."

"What am I not panicked about?!" I burst out. "My whole family is a mess and I'm the only one not home to help, not to mention that my parents are muggles, so the judge can't just look and compare all of our memories, so there's no way that our parents are getting locked up, which means that we might all have to go back and live with them, and we just can't do that, and now Amanda wants me to plan a girls night with her, and not only do I hate planning, but I hate girls night and I've never really had friends before to even do girls night with, so it might be fun, but now she wants everyone to come, and what about you guys? You, Tommy, and Lorcan? Why can't you sleepover too? And now Tabitha is acting all weird and friendly and you guys broke up and that's good, I think, but I don't know why I think that it's so good, and-"

Hugo cut me off by yanking me into a hug, shoving my face into his shoulder, stifling my voice. "Shut up," he rumbled. His voice vibrated through his chest. "You'll be fine."

"I want to go home," I whispered.

"I know, but you gotta stay. You're safe here."

"But my siblings aren't," I sobbed.

"We'll figure it out," Hugo promised. "But first, class." We walked along hand-in-hand and before I when we reached the Transfiguration classroom, Hugo tugged on my arm. "Meet for lunch?" I nodded. Before I could blink, Hugo kissed my cheek and turned away. I flushed. _Twice in one week_ , I thought. _No, strike that. Twice in two days._

I stared at his back in confusion, fighting my changing eyes. I didn't know what that meant, but I was sure that it meant something.

"Thank Merlin for lunch," I moaned, throwing myself into Lorcan's lap.

"You know, I'm getting a weird sense of de ja vu," he noted. I grinned at him sheepishly and slid off of his lap onto the seat next to Amanda. Hugo and Tommy were both sitting across the table, shoveling their mouths with food.

"How were your classes?" Amanda asked. "As bad as you thought?"

"They're always worse," I answered, serving myself some caesar salad and garlic bread.

"Not planning on kissing anyone, I suppose," Lorcan joked. My eyes quickly flickered to Hugo, who was staring back at me. I quickly took a bite of my garlic bread and breathed in his face. He scrunched up his nose in disgust. "Gross."

I smirked and took another bite of my bread. Amanda waited until I was finished chewing and then tugged on my arm. "We need to start planning the party."

"Why?" I took a sip of my water, swishing it around in my mouth.

"Because," Amanda said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "We're planning it for Friday."

"Which means that we have four whole days to plan."

"Exactly!" Amanda said urgently. "We only have _four_ _days_! Can we meet after classes today? In the Slytherin Common Room?"

I sighed. "Sure. But these idiots are helping us." Tommy, Hugo, and Lorcan all immediately protested, shouting in indignation.

"We're not even invited," Hugo protested. "Why should we have to help?"

"Yeah," Tommy agreed hastily. His girlfriend glared at him, but he didn't seem to notice. Or care. "And we're not good at planning parties. Like, at all."

"Speak for yourself," Lorcan responded, fluttering his eyelashes. "I'm fantastic at party-planning. But there's no way in hell that I'm helping with the planning. Especially if I don't get to reap the benefits. And if there's no booze."

I calmly took a bite of my salad. "You guys are helping. And that's that."

Hugo and Tommy looked up with a nervous expression on their faces. I was about to feel smug, when I noticed that their gaze was focused on a point above my head. Lorcan straddled the bench and smirked. "Why, hello, Headmistress! You're looking lovely this afternoon."

Hugo shoved his face in his hands, but I saw a smile, so I knew he was hiding a laugh. Amanda nervously fiddled with her hair, but she was hiding a smirk, as well.

Headmistress Clearwater pursed her lips. "You already have detention every day this week, Mr. Scamander. Would you like to make it more?"

"I think you have me mistaken with my brother," he said, his mouth quirked up at the edges, his eyes filled with playful mirth. "You see, we're both 'Mr. Scamander'. And I'm the good child. You know, the one who stays out of trouble."

Headmistress Clearwater inhaled sharply through her nose, as if it were taking all of her energy not to strangle Lorcan. "Mr. Scamander, I am perfectly aware to whom I am speaking. And you will want to cease speaking if you wish for the rest of your month to be free."

"Awe, c'mon, Penny." Lorcan grinned up at her and she snapped.

"You have just gotten yourself detention for the rest of the month." 'Penny' straightened her robes. "Now, as I was trying to say. Ms. Waterrose, you are needed in my office. You have a visitor." Her lips once again pursed, although I sensed that it wasn't so much in disapproval. "Actually, you have two visitors."

I followed Headmistress Clearwater to her office, nervously peering around the corner. "Lillian? Minnie?" I ran to my sister and threw my arms around her. "I missed you so much," I whispered into her shoulder.

"I missed you too," she murmured into my hair before pulling away. I turned toward Minnie, who nodded at me. I grinned back at her, sure that my eyes were their normal color.

I turned back toward my sister. "How is everyone?" I asked desperately. "Is Tammi okay? Is Sally doing well at school, I know that she ditched a lot with Jesse last year, and how is Caleb? He's still a baby, and I should be there to help take care of them, please let me come home-"

"Everyone is fine," Lillian interrupted, gripping my shoulders. "Every _thing_ is fine." She pulled out a bundle of letters from her back, which I knew was magically expanded. "They all wrote you letters. I figured that I'd just give them to you here instead of having an owl take them. And you know how the kids get around owls."

I took the letters, holding them carefully. I gave a small smile to Lillian. "Sorry, I got a little distracted. What did you come here to say that you couldn't say in a letter?"

Minnie and Lillian exchanged glances. "Well, we got a new trial date, but they're giving Mom and Dad full custody again, unless I can somehow convince the court to grant me full custody, and I can't take care of three kids. Neither can Dusty, not that they would grant him custody anyway," Lillian explained. "We're here because protective services wants to see the boarding school that you have been attending."

"What about the whole _obliviation_ thing?"

Minnie rested her hand on Lillian's shoulder and continued speaking: "Well, the school-visit is scheduled for Wednesday, so we have decided to temporarily transfer you to a muggle boarding school over in Wales. It is small and we have obliviated the entire staff and placed memories so that they believe that there is a Grace Watterrose at school."

"I still don't understand why you can't just obliviate me from memory."

"Well, first of all, it would cause some confusion when you returned. Also, it would mean that we would have to erase you from all documents, which there are quite a few of, and we would have to erase you from you siblings' minds. Permanently."

"What? No."

"That was our thought too," Lillian said tiredly. "Thus the boarding school. We're taking you there now."

"Now? Wait, what about my stuff. And why can't I just go on Wednesday morning and leave as soon as they're finished checking if the school is 'safe' or whatever?"

"Because the false memories that we have planted will only be effective if you have not been absent for two days in a row. The two days right before you're supposed to have your visitation. That does not look good. And so far, you have had a perfect attendance."

"Okay, fine. Can I get my stuff together?" Minnie nodded her head in response.

I walked through Clearwater's office in a sort of daze, and I was not all that surprised to see my friends waiting outside her office. My vision tunneled on Hugo.

"Well?" he prompted.

I looked at my friends before turning back to Hugo. "I'm going muggle," I told them. " _Damn_ , I hate Mondays."


	7. Muggle-tastic

"It's so small," I said, looking up at the building. "And it's not a castle." I turned back to Minnie and Lillian. "I thought all boarding schools were castles."

Minnie pursed her lips at the small school. "Yes, but it is one of the most elite muggle boarding schools in Europe. Hopefully, the social workers will look favorably upon this fact."

"And where am I supposed to be right now?" Minnie said that she had stocked my "room" with all of the necessities and said that she would clear it out once I was finished "muggling-it-up."

"Well, you have a holiday for the day." Minnie adjusted her spectacles and looked at the sheet of paper that she was holding. "The muggles are under the impression that you have been off on a day trip with your sister, Lillian. Lillian will accompany you to your room and help you get settled, and tomorrow you will attend school just like every other student on the premises. I believe that she can blend in more adeptly than I."

I glanced at Minnie, who, even in muggle clothing, looked more like a Victorian queen than a loving grandmother who went on a day trip with her two grandchildren. Lillian looked far more normal in her jeans, fuzzy hat, and soft pink sweater.

"Okay. And what will I have to do at this 'school'?" I asked skeptically.

"Duh," Lillian answered, rolling her eyes. "Learn stuff."

"And what about my lessons back at Hogwarts? And Quidditch practice? Merlin, Hugo's going to kill me."

"Relax, sis," Lillian said, throwing an arm over my shoulder. "Let's see where you've been living for the past, what was it, three years?"

"Five," Minnie answered dryly. "I have always criticized that we do not require maths at Hogwarts."

"Wait-am I going to have to do maths?"

Minnie nodded. "And I believe that you have a test on the subject tomorrow."

"You have got to be fucking kidding me!" I exclaimed, much to Minnie's chagrin. "I don't know a thing about maths!"

Minnie gave a dry smile. "Are you ready to meet your roommate? Your room is 132, dorm B. Try not to need help, but if you need me then just signal using your wand."

"But I'm-"

"I know that you are underage, but I have allowed you to perform one communication charm- just one- to summon me in case of emergency. Make certain that your wand is _well-hidden_ and do not use magic in the presence of muggles. Keep the Statute of Secrecy for two days. That's all."

"Fine," I said through gritted teeth.

"Ready?" Lillian asked in her chirpy voice that she used to use to make us think that everything was alright when we were living in hell.

"Of course." I took a deep breath and hid my wand in my small bag that kept only a few small things from Hogwarts.

"Gracie!" a girl squealed. The door to my "room" was open and a girl was frantically throwing clothes around. Literally every surface was covered. In. Clothes.

And they were all pink. Lillian's eyes were as big as galleons, but she was grinning, so I knew that she was amused. "Um, yes?" I said. The girl ran up to me clutching two dresses to her chest. She was pretty, with deep blue eyes, pale skin, and dark brown hair.

"Which one?" she asked breathily. Then, without waiting for a answer: "You're right, neither of these work. Oh my God, what am I going to do?!"

"Sorry, what are you doing?" Lillian asked, pushing through the frills to get to the closet.

"Getting ready for my date! I told Grace about it ages ago! I cannot _believe_ that you guys had to leave today, of all days, on your family outing." She pointed her finger accusingly at Lillian, who was rummaging through the girl's closet. "I blame you."

Lillian turned around, her arms full of clothes. "Me? The girl who just got you the perfect outfit for your date?" She held up a dark blue tube top that matched the girl's eyes, a black leather jacket, and skinny jeans. "If you have a pair of leather knee-highs and some silver bling, you're good to go."

The girl squealed. "Lillian, you are the _best_! I forgot that you're majoring in fashion design."

"I am?" Lillian glanced at me. "I mean, I am. Of course I am." The girl didn't notice the slip-up. She had changed into the outfit that Lillian had offered.

"Okay, any suggestions for hair?!"

"Sure." Lillian walked over to the girl and started twisting it into some sort of braid. "Remind me your name?"

"Seriously," the girl laughed. "Gracie is literally at my house all of the time, how can you not remember me?"

"I don't remember the name of your date tonight," I pointed out, hiding a smirk. I didn't know anything about the girl, but she reminded me of Genie: girly and fake.

The girl rolled her eyes as Lillian turned her around and started on her makeup. "Yeah, but you don't care about boys. I don't _expect_ you to remember all of the dates that I have. And it's Lyra, Lillian. Lyra Queens. And Gracie-" I cringed at the repeated nickname- "when did you dye your hair? The teachers are going to _kill_ you!"

"What?" I fingered my hair. "Maybe I'll stick a hat over it?"

"You're not allowed to wear hats, silly! God, it's like you haven't been here for the whole year. First you forget my name, now your forget the dress code." She gave a tinkling laugh, which was cut off by a look of immediate panic when there was a knock at the door. "Ohmigod, he's here!"

"Who's here?"

"My date! Jason!" She slipped on here shoes and grabbed a purse. "Wish me luck! Don't wait up for me! Sorry about the mess!" She waved her hand around the room and slipped out of the door. I caught a brief glimpse of a guy who looked like a jock.

When the door clicked closed, I exchanged glances with Lillian. "I like her," Lillian commented.

"I can't do this," I told her. "This place is a mess, my roommate's crazier than my roommates at Hogwarts- which is saying something, by the way- and this school is awful."

"It's just for two days," Lillian assured me.

"Can you please organize this place? I mean, I'm used to messy roommates, but this is a whole new level." Lillian waved her wand and everything that was scattered around the room went back to their respective places, revealing the actual room. It was a cute room with windows lining the wall. There were two desks, one of them covered in makeup and shopping bags, the other covered in school books. The top bunk of the bed was cloaked in pink frills and white sheets, the bottom with neatly tucked purple sheets. I went to check my side of the closet and found it filled with a few of my muggle outfits and-

"You're kidding," I said flatly, holding up the uniform. It was a short black, yellow, and green plaid skirt, a white button down shirt, and a deep green blazer with the school's logo on a patch over the heart. "This is horrid."

Lillian was clutching her stomach in laughter. "Wait," she gasped out. "I think there are matching socks too. And it looks so good with your hair. You better get a picture of this."

"Merlin, no. Lorcan would plaster it all over the school and Hugo would never let me live it down."

"Ooooh, Hugo," Lillian said teasingly. "How's that going?"

"It's not," I said. "We're just friends."

"Sure," Lillian responded disbelievingly.

I threw the blazer at Lillian's head. "We _are_. I mean it."

Lillian grinned. "I mean, you're going to out of contact with him for _two whole days_. Whatever will you do?"

"You're not funny," I told her, picking up a maths book from the newly cleared desk. "Now, are you going to be helpful, or are you just going to tease me?"

Lillian shrugged. "Can't I do both?" She grabbed the maths book from my hand and opened it to the page with the sticky note on it. "'Test on chapters eight through ten, Wednesday.'"

"I don't suppose they'll schedule the 'evaluation'-or whatever the heck it is- during maths class so that I don't have to flunk the test?"

"Knowing Minnie, she'll probably have arranged it so that you _have_ to take the maths test." Lillian flopped back onto the bed and gestured to the spot next to her. "C'mon. Let's figure out this maths gig."

"Speaking of my hair," I said, looking at the numbers and letters on the page, trying to figure out how they went together. I thought that maths only had numbers, which meant that I knew even less than I thought I did... and I didn't think that I knew a lot to begin with. "I worked really hard on making my hair perfect, do you think you can summon a wig or something?"

"Or we can focus on maths and you'll just have to put your hair back the way you want when you get back to Hogwarts."

I rolled my eyes and Lillian took her wand to my hair. "Fine," I grumbled.

Lyra came back into the room at about 1:30 am. AKA way after curfew. AKA way too late to be out. AKA how was she able to get back into the room without getting in trouble? "Grace?" Lyra whispered.

I fumbled around for the light switch. Lyra blinked in the sudden light and I rubbed my eyes. "What?" I muttered.

"Oh, nothing." She peeked her head out of the door and murmured something out of the door. My mind was still a little foggy from sleep, but then I realized who she was speaking to.

"Ew," I moaned, shoving my head into my pillow. "Can you not?"

Lyra threw a grin at me. Her shirt was riding suspiciously lower and her hair was significantly knottier. "Don't you want to know how my date was?"

"I can see how it was," I groaned, "and it appears that it went well. How did you get back in without getting caught?"

"I did get caught." Lyra rolled her eyes. "They don't care what I do. I'm rich! The only thing that they didn't agree to was letting me have my own room. Although that didn't turn out so bad. You and me got to be friends."

"You didn't want a roommate?" I asked.

"No, duh. That's why I was such a bitch to you when you first came here." Lyra paused to take off her clothes and shrug into an oversized t-shirt. "I'm exhausted. Turn out that light."

I rolled my eyes and turned the lights off so that we were once again engulfed in darkness. As much as I complained about the noise in the Slytherin dorms, I missed the sound of the girls snoring and shifting in their beds and sneaking in and out to meet a secret boy or girl. I missed the chaos of the room. I shimmied deeper into my covers and fell asleep to the mantra: _Just two more days, just two more days, just two more days..._

Damn, you really gotta miss those Hogwarts elves. When I got up, I got into my ugly-ass uniform (which was worse when it was actually on, might I add) and went down to breakfast. Lyra was still sleeping, but I figured that if she didn't get in trouble for coming back after curfew, she probably wouldn't get in trouble for missing a class. I glanced back at the snoring girl.

Or maybe two.

But that wasn't why I missed the house-elves. No, I missed the elves because they made me breakfast that didn't taste and look like crap.

The cafeteria, as they called it, was small. There wasn't enough room to fit all of the students, not that any of them wanted to eat there.

I sat squished between a bunch of sweaty boys who claimed that we were friends but who I did not know at all. They, of course, were shoveling the food into their mouths, shouting over at each other. (For attending one of the most prestigious boarding schools in the country, they sure didn't act any more dignified.) I, on the other hand, couldn't bring myself to spoon the glop they called oatmeal into my mouth. And that mushy, runny, disgusting food was the only thing that they offered that was even remotely edible. They didn't have toast or fruit that wasn't covered with mold. I really didn't know how I was supposed to make it for the next two days. I just wasn't going to eat.

"Oi, Gracie," one of the guys said. I didn't remember his name... it could have been James or Jack, or something totally different like Zachary.

"What?" I grunted, watching the oatmeal soup drip back into the bowl.

"Wanna head to class?"

"No." James or Jack or Zachary or whoever looked confused, poor thing. I mean, if they were calling me Gracie, they must think I'm some ditsy, nice blonde chick. Knowing Minnie, she put it in their heads to call me Gracie in order to make me suffer. I sighed. "Sorry. Let's go to... what class do we have again?"

"Maths... like we have every morning."

My eyes widened. "You mean I have maths- the hardest class- first period and I have to take a test tomorrow? First thing in the morning? You have got to be fucking kidding me."

Everyone at our table froze and started speaking in hushed tones. "You swore..." mystery boy said in an awed tone. "Nobody swears here."

I bit my bottom lip. "Oops."

"You better watch that language unless you want to get expelled."

I snorted. Get expelled from a school that I don't actually go to. Yeah, that'd be something. "My dream," I said sarcastically. Apparently, nobody spoke sarcasm because they all looked at me like I told them that I was going to set off a dozen dungbombs in the cafeteria in front of the principle. If they knew what dungbombs were. "Let's just go to class," I sighed.

The only thing that I learned in the maths class was that the guy who took me there was named Douglas. (Yeah, I was way off with all of the names.)

The teacher was speaking, but someone might as well have placed a _Muffliato_ charm on me, because the only sounds that I heard coming out of her mouth was gibberish. And the writing on the board looked like it was written in Mermish or some other obscure language.

I hadn't taken maths in years, and my lack of experience was starting to show.

"Miss Waterrose," the teacher said sharply.

I jerked, pulling my gaze away from trying to understand the board. "What?"

"I _asked_ you a question. Do you care to answer it?" This lady reminded me of Headmistress Clearwater- she was scary strict. That is, if Headmistress Clearwater painted her lips red and had brunette hair that was always pulled into a tight bun.

"I would love to answer the question," I said, my voice high and scared. "But-"

"But you didn't hear it?" the teacher asked, raising an eyebrow. I shook my head, trying to seem as innocent as possible. "Well, since you are my best student, I'll repeat the question."

And _there's_ that Muffliato spell again. "Sorry, ma'am, I'm just not feeling so up to answering the question," I said, formulating a plan in my head. "You know, my family issues aren't great right now, and with everything..."

The teacher's lips loosed from their knot, forming a more sympathetic frown. "Of course. I almost forgot. Of course you don't have to answer the question, as long as you're ready for the maths test tomorrow."

I smiled. "Of course I'll be ready."

My burning eyes were hiding my lie. Ready? Hell to the no.

I needed to talk to Minnie about getting me out of here sooner. Unfortunately, every chance that I got, someone was around. Whether it be Lyra talking my ear off about her date last night, or Douglas, who I was beginning to suspect had a crush on me.

After I had escaped Douglas for the fifth time, I went into my room and locked it, checking to make sure that Lyra wasn't in it. Then I pushed my desk chair under the door knob to make sure that she couldn't get in. Not that she remembered her key; she barely remembered to put her clothes on in the morning. (Although that might be on purpose, now that I thought about it.)

I used my wand to cast my one communication charm to Minnie. "You have to get me out of here," was the first thing I said when she answered.

"And why is that?" she responded, over-pronouncing the "wh" sound.

"Because it's awful here, that's why! I don't even care about the whole 'not-at-Hogwarts' thing anymore! I just want to be on the whole 'not-at-this-bloody-boarding-school' train."

There was a pause, and it was moments like these that I wished wizards used cellphones to video chat instead of casting communication charms or using Floo powder (because that was a killer on the legs). "The inspectors will be there in an hour. I'll pick you up tomorrow morning and it will be like you never existed at all."

"Seriously?" I breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you so much, I don't even know what I would have done."

"Well," she said, and I could practically see her pursing her lips, trying to hide her amusement.

"Oh, what?" I groaned.

"The inspectors were always going to come today. It was just for my own entertainment to see how you would react to having to take a maths test."

"Are you bloody kidding me?" I exploded, my eyes flashing from red to orange so that they flickered with fire. "Well, I didn't react well, let me tell you that. Lillian knew too, didn't she?"

"I must admit that it was her idea," McGonagall confessed.

"I'm going to kill her," I growled.

"Well, the killing is going to have to wait. The inspectors will want to meet with you after they make sure that the school is suitable and safe. You must tell them that you usually stay during the holidays in order to reassure them that you're not a child of immediate concern regarding your parents abuse; that should make it easier to keep you far away from the case and ensure that you won't get anymore surprise visits at your school.

"You should go to classes, as you normally would if you were a true student there. And you'll be meeting them with your principle, who will hopefully confirm that you are doing very well. Please, Grace, try to answer their questions as sincerely as possible; make sure that they know you're happy and safe there. I cannot emphasize it enough, they need to know that you are safe and succeeding there so that they do not make you transfer to a local public school to keep a closer eye on you.

"And, Grace, darling," she concluded, my eyes silver with anxiety and my stomach twisting with all of the instructions. "Please try to keep your sarcasm to a minimum. I know that you think it's charming, but I doubt that the government officials will find it so."

"Okay," I squeaked.

"Good luck, dear."

I was in the middle of learning about Queen Victoria's reign (which was funny, since we had just learned about her as the first werewolf of the British family in our History of Magic class) when I was called into the principle's office.

One problem: I had no idea where the principle's office was, seeing as I didn't actually go to the school. _Minnie should have given me a tour_ , I thought as I passed classroom after classroom, but never an office.

"Hey!" I called to a kid passing by. She looked up, scared to be called out by one of the older students. "Oh, relax. I'm looking for the principle's office."

"Principle Davies?"

"Is there another principle?" I asked, exasperated.

"No," the girl squeaked before pointing me in the direction of the office of Principle 'Davies'.

Once I found it, the door was actually labeled pretty clearly. As in, there was a giant gold plaque that said "Principle Laura Davies" in giant black letters. Then, underneath it on a significantly smaller bronze plaque, it said "Assistant Principle Alexander Fier" in tiny silver letters, making it difficult to see.

I knocked on the door, quickly straightening out my uniform. "Come in!"

I opened the door and a lady who radiated even more power than Headmistress Clearwater (although not as much as McGonagall) was standing next to a small lady with white hair. "Hello?" I squeaked.

"Grace!" the lady with white hair said, coming over to stand next to me. She had to reach up to put her arm around my shoulder, and I wasn't that tall to begin with. "This is one of our star students, Grace Waterrose."

The power-lady just stared. "Hm." Principle Davies's smile faltered. "May we sit? I need to ask Grace a few questions." Once we were all situated around the small wooden table, the scary lady started shuffling through yellow files. "It says here that you prefer to be called Gracie."

 _I knew McGonagall rigged it so that everyone would call me 'Gracie!'_ "Just Grace will do," I responded.

She hummed again. "And you're a straight-A student?"

"If that's what it says," I said, laughing nervously. She wasn't amused. "Um, yes."

"You feel safe here? You have friends?"

"Yes."

"And how often do you go home?"

I bit my lip. "Not very often."

"Yes, Grace spends all of her holidays here," Principle Davies interrupted. "It's a special program that we offer for students who don't have the best home-life and who can't enjoy the holidays."

"Gee, thanks," I muttered.

"So you only go home during the summer holidays?" I looked at the lady. "We just want to see how closely connected you are to this case. We don't want to have to drag you away from this..." She looked around the room, her nose wrinkled, before her gaze rested on the eager principle. " _School_."

"Yeah, but I stay with my friends from school for a lot of the summer. I didn't even really know what was happening back home until this whole case came up," I lied.

"Hm. I just need to check out your room, and then I should be set." The lady straightened the files and put them in a sleek black briefcase.

"That's it?" I asked.

She nodded, handing me a business card. "If anything changes in your case, let me know. We shouldn't need to contact you again, but there's always a possibility."

"You don't need to know anything else about me?" Not that I wanted them to be interested in me, but I was slightly confused as to why they weren't more interested in my safety. They were supposed to be child _protective_ services, and they don't care enough to check me out. Oh, how the government cares about their children.

"Everything I need to know is in the files," she responded, patting her briefcase.

"Fine," I said, "let me show you to my room."

We walked there in silence, the only sound her heals clicking on the wooden floor (and I thought that heals only clicked on marble floors). I was afraid that I was going to forget which door was mine, but it turns out that I needn't have worried because Lyra was having what sounded like a party in our room.

"Lyra?" I shouted over the rap music blaring from a pink speaker in the corner. Our room was an explosion of clothes again. "Lyra!"

"What?" Her head poked up from one of the piles of clothes. "Oh, thank god you're here. You need to help me get ready for my date tonight!"

I stumbled over the clothes and turned off the music, massaging my ears. "Lyra-"

"And before you say anything, because I know that you're going to, it's with the guy from last night. So you don't have to worry about me being a slu-"

"Lyra," I hissed.

"What's got your panties in a twist?" She finally looked up, her dark hair in her face, and saw the lady taking furious notes. "Oh, crap. Your investigation thing was today."

"Yeah." I turned back to the lady. "This is my roommate Lyra. If she's a problem, she can pay you off."

Lyra nodded importantly. "It's true. I'm rich."

"Do you live like this all year?"

"Usually it's neater," I said, trying to move the clothes around to make it presentable.

"Yeah," Lyra affirmed, clearly trying to make up for her bad first impression. "Gracie is, like, super neat. She's always cleaning up after me."

"Hm." I was really starting to hate that humming sound. She jotted down one last thing and looked up with her unforgiving face. "You don't seem to be directly involved in the case that we're pursuing, but we'll have to go over these notes with the judge. It should be fine, just make sure to continue doing well here. Good bye."

She left the room, her heals clicking on the way out despite the clothes littering the floor. There must have been something magical involved in the making of those shoes.

"Wow, she's _crazy_ ," Lyra said, laughing. "Sucks that you have to deal with that."

I just looked at her. Girls like Lyra and Genie were so insensitive; they didn't care about anybody but themselves. "You have no idea," I told her, remembering years of physical and emotional abuse. "And aren't you supposed to be in class?"

"Aren't you?" she retorted.

I rolled my eyes, falling back onto my bed, the only place in the room that wasn't covered in frilly clothes. _I can't wait for tomorrow morning until I can go back to Hogwarts._ I hid a grin in my pillow, but it quickly dissipated. _Oh, crap. When I get back, I have to deal with Amanda's party._


End file.
